ROSCOMMON – Have you ever pranked somebody on April fool’s Day? Have you ever been the victim of an April fool’s Day prank? Have you ever been curious as to the origins of the day and why it is observed and recognized worldwide?
I was curious so I did some Googling and after much clicking of the mouse I discovered - no one really knows! There are a lot of historical and literary references, but nothing truly factual. However, the day has generated a lot of pranks on a very public scale such as:
In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees.
In 1996, Taco Bell, the fast-food restaurant chain, duped people when it announced it had agreed to purchase Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell.
In 1998, after Burger King advertised a “Left-Handed Whopper,” scores of clueless customers requested the fake sandwich
These pranks are creatively awesome and funny, and will be remembered as classic pranks. However, there is another day in April celebrated and observed by Christians that is also considered a Fool’s Day by the lost world.
When you really think about it, to a lost heart, Easter must be the most foolish and most elaborate prank ever perpetrated on mankind. A belief, faith and hope in the power of the Easter story? It’s crazy, preposterous, foolish - it’s a “fool’s hope”.
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18).
In terms of worldly reason? It really is mind-boggling. The apostle Paul admits as much. The foolishness and weakness to which Paul points in 1 Corinthians is the cross and the proclamation of the cross. The death that Jesus dies alone, betrayed, abandoned is a foolishness and a weakness that shapes all reality.
“The power of God and the Wisdom of God” works according to God’s Grace, not man’s logic and reason. I like grace. Grace is illogical. Grace is God’s wisdom. Grace changes everything. The world needs grace. The world needs to see Christians living in the power of grace and surrendering their lives to the victorious calling of a “fool’s hope”. Our lives need to exemplify the great Redemptive Love of the Cross not the silliness of an April fool’s prank!
Jim Elliot, a missionary who gave his life trying to witness to the Ecuadorian natives, made the statement, “He is No Fool Who Gives What He Cannot Keep, To Gain That Which He Cannot Lose!”. If the world considers me a fool, hoping in a fool’s hope - Great! Awesome! because God knows this fool’s name!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mick Schatz serves on the staff of the Baptist State Convention of Michigan. He is the State Director of Spiritual Enrichment and Retreats and lives at Bambi Lake.