Bubba and the Flying Mule and the Story of Easter
A number of years ago Bubba and Cletus were making moonshine up in Dillard in the hills of Northeast Georgia’s Rabun County.
They began to argue about the best recipe for making moonshine and on thing led to another. It wasn’t long before the argument went beyond the shouting and screaming stage and things began to get a little physical.
Cletus was getting the best of Bubba so Bubba went for the great equalizer and pulled a gun on Cletus and shot him and he fell over dead. Bubba went to trial and found a lot of Cletus’ relatives and moonshine customers on the jury and Bubba was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death.
The ole judge was real proud of a mule that he owned and Bubba knew this. After he was sentenced Bubba made an offer to the judge. He said, “Your honor if you will give me a year, I’ll teach your mule to fly. If the mule can fly after a year then you will make me a free man. If the mule doesn’t fly then we can carry out my sentence right then.”
Surprisingly, the judge agreed to the terms, thinking he would love to have a flying mule. Bubba’s friends said “Why did you do that?” to which Bubba replied, “Who knows a year from now the judge might be dead, or I might be dead, or the mule might be dead. Heck, the mule might even learn to fly, but at least I have hope.”
Hope. Is that not the message of Easter? If the empty tomb of Jesus Christ tells us nothing else it tells us that in life’s darkest moments that we have hope.
On Good Friday it seemed that the world was in shambles.
Humanity had slapped the face of God and crucified his only son. In spite of all the love God had shown humankind, humankind committed its ultimate act of rebellion by sending Jesus to the cross.
Yet, then comes Easter. Jesus emerges from the tomb to tell us that God through the grace bestowed in Jesus Christ will always love his people, always offer them forgiveness, offer them salvation and offer them eternal life. As long as we have these things we have hope.
Yes, the message of Easter is that God is on the throne and he loves us and desires us to be with him throughout eternity. If that does not give us hope what can? I had much rather rest my hope in the love of God than whether or not a mule is going to fly.