CHOCOLATE AND EASTER

Carole Boshart

Anyone who has engaged me in serious conversation (or not so serious) may come to know that one of my favorite things is chocolate, and that my favorite church season is Lent and Easter. Now chocolate and Lent/Easter might seem like two natural combinations. And they are, but I suggest a different way of looking at chocolate during this Easter. So imagine with me a unique and subtle aroma of sweetness, tastes of bitterness and darkness, of lightness and airiness, and textures that stir the senses; yes, Lent and Easter is all of these things. (And you thought I was talking about chocolate!)

In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus wrestled with God’s will and himself. There are various interpretations of what that time of prayer was like for Jesus. We do know it was dark and difficult. Through prayer Jesus asked for assurance from his Holy Father that this was what he should do. In this there was both bitterness and sweetness—the bitterness of death and the sweetness of redemption.

Have you ever had chocolate truffles? They are dark, a bit bitter but also sweet. Not everyone likes them, and for some (like me) it has been an acquired taste. Truffles are like mushrooms, growing in the ground, in moist dark places, thriving on the death of the vegetation around them. I hold these two together, the despair of Jesus giving himself up to death for us, and the bitter-velvety taste of chocolate truffles that come from dark places.

Jesus being brought before the High Priest and Pilate had bitterness to it also. There was no sweetness there, just the bitterness of Jesus coming before them without pretense or defense. The gospels have him saying very little, like a lamb being brought to slaughter. Just as we have no defense for our sinfulness, so did Jesus offer no defense.

Have you ever tasted bitter chocolate? It is just the processed cocoa bean with no sweetener added. It is the starting point for most processed chocolate. I have tasted unsweetened chocolate. It was a jolt to my sense of taste, expecting one thing but tasting quite another. Perhaps that is how the disciples felt when Jesus was arrested and put on trial, especially Judas and Peter. It was not supposed to be like that; Jesus was supposed to triumph! I hold these two together, the surprise and unpreparedness of Jesus being brought to trial and the unrefined, surprising taste of unsweetened/bitter chocolate.

Thinking about Jesus carrying his cross to Golgotha transports me to that biblical time, and I can imagine the stony path to that hilltop, a stone being used to pound in the nails, and stones being used to anchor the cross. Stones and nails, hard things that bite into flesh.

Have you ever had nuts in chocolate, or chocolate-covered nuts? There are so many different kinds of nuts that can be covered: peanuts, pecan, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, walnuts, macadamia. . . . The list can go on and on. But each one is the same in that there is that bit of chocolate-sweetness before you come to the center, the crunch, the bite.

So it is with Christ walking to the cross; encased in that act of love is his task, impossible except for the Divine, of dying for our sins. I hold these two together, the stony path to the cross and the sweet crunch of chocolate-covered nuts.

On Easter morning, the women who followed Jesus went to his tomb to anoint him and more properly prepare him for burial. They brought with them spices and fragrances and perhaps fresh clothes to wrap him in. But when they arrived, the tomb was empty, a hollow space.

Have you ever had hollow chocolate? Often at Easter time it is decorated with colors and adornments made of colored chocolate or other kinds of sugary confection. But when you break it open, nothing is there; it is empty, hollow.

I have spent untold hours for many Easters breaking apart hollow chocolate; it does not matter what shape it is or what animal it represents; if it is hollow I will eat it. In the past few years chocolate makers have made hollow chocolate with other candies inside, like a surprise. This is even better! Hollow chocolate, with something in the nothingness. I hold these two together, hollow chocolate with a wonderful surprise in its emptiness and the risen Lord leaving a message of hope in the empty tomb.

Chocolate and Easter. I find redemption, transformation, and hope for the future in both. I hope for all our Easters to contain the sweetness, the bitter and dark, the light and airy, and textures that stir the senses and invite further communion with our risen Lord.

—Carole Boshart, Eugene, Oregon, was born and raised in southern Ontario, Canada. She has studied at Goshen (Ind.) College and at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, where she earned a Masters in Christian Formation. She has been writing columns such as these for the past six years and is currently an online columnist for the Third Way Café, www.ThirdWayCafe.com. She and her husband Tim live in Eugene with their three children.