As is my habit, I typically share something humorous or personal before I get down to the meatier business of preaching.
Allow me to set the stage further. The evening before, as we sat around the dinner table, our daughters put this question to their mother: “Didn’t you get us an Easter basket?” My wife is the provider of such things, so all eyes, including my mother’s, were now fixed on my wife. Her response was not what we wanted to hear. “You’re too old for such things!” Gracious! Too old? You’re never too old, especially for chocolate. To say there was a pall over the dinner after that would be putting it mildly.
You see, I always look forward to receiving a chocolate Easter bunny every year. A basket for the girls is fine. Just let me have my chocolate bunny – preferably solid chocolate – not that hollow stuff. But this year I got nothing!
At fifty-eight I am not too old. Neither is my mother who will soon be ninety-two. Our girls are twenty-eight and twenty-five. I’ve never heard of an Easter grinch, but I believe there’s one lurking in our neighborhood!
So there I am the next morning standing in the pulpit sharing chit-chat with the congregation. I casually mention (some would call it whining) that I didn’t get my chocolate Easter bunny this year. Okay, so maybe I pouted a little bit. I’m not too old! I’m not! I’m not!
When I arrive in my office the next day I find a chocolate bunny on my desk, lovingly placed there by my secretary who took pity on me. The next morning there’s another chocolate bunny dropped off by one of the church folk.
Then Sunday morning when I enter the sanctuary for our first service I notice three more chocolate bunnies. One was on the communion table, and the other two were on the pulpit. This now makes five bunnies! True to bunnies, they were multiplying!
I teach an adult Sunday school class between our two worship services, so when I came back into the sanctuary for our second service I discovered two more Easter bunnies on the pulpit. At the end of the service while I was greeting folks at the door one lady told me to stay where I was – she was going to her car to get me a chocolate bunny she had brought for me. Now I have eight!
When I arrived home my oldest daughter presented me with my ninth and last chocolate Easter bunny. I still have yet to receive one from my wife. There’s still time!
It has been said that money talks,
but chocolate sings!
This all got me to thinking. Given enough time, I’m sure I could develop a theological treatise on the Biblical evidence supporting the fact that those who will reside in heaven will be feasting on copious amounts of chocolate throughout eternity. I’m sure there are plenty of Scripture verses to support this claim. Let’s see . . . . “Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.” That’ll work. Then there’s this one – “He that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat.” Yes! And I like this one! “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”
See? I’ve already begun to exegete a theological basis for chocolate being in heaven. It’s simple. Chocolate is frequently considered to be “divine.” Well, divine means it is from God. So where God is, there has to be chocolate. Right? Following sound deductive reasoning, this would naturally lead us to conclude that chocolate is a heavenly food. Since Jesus rose from the dead on Easter and now resides in heaven, we will celebrate his resurrection every day in glory. Therefore, since chocolate bunnies are only available on Easter, and we will celebrate Easter every day in heaven, we’ll get to eat chocolate forever!
Oh, and then there’s this! In heaven “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” No longer will we have to worry about fat grams, empty calories, high cholesterol, and clogged arteries! Hallelujah!
The future looks bright. I think I’ll have a chocolate bunny!
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