It's Easter!! This is a time to celebrate the substitution of Christ on the cross for us; it is a time for us to be filled with joy that the punishment and damning of our sins was taken by Christ upon Himself in order to bring us to Him.
People often give me a weird look when I tell them that I am celebrating Christ's death. And I do admit, it sound a bit morbid and uncanny, but really, when you think about it, the death of Christ as a substitute for us is a great subject to celebrate! I mean, had Christ not done that, we would be damned to Hell still! We would still bear the condemnation of our sins on us, without any hope of being with God.
Would I have preferred that Jesus didn't die? Yes, of course I do. But as Christ says in Luke 22, "Take this cup from me; but not my will, but yours be done." Jesus could have called the angels down from heaven and taken himself off the cross, but he didn't because he loves you and me that much - to endure flaying, beatings, insult, torture, even a crucifixion - a method of death that was so agonizing that the ancient people formed a new word for it, excruciating, literally meaning: "out of the cross."
Easter, I think, should not be a focus on Christ's death and resurrection, however, but rather a focus on the unfathomable love that was shown on that day when the Son of God let himself endure the most painful death man could conceive of, for the simple fact that God loves us like his Children. This is a celebratory time of Christ's love for us - his dedication, grace, mercy, and commitment to us.
I'm just afraid that people will think of Easter in solely the physical sense of Jesus dying and raising from the dead. If we think this way, it is easy for us to slip into the "Oh yeah, Jesus died, rose from the grave, it was a pretty cool trick, He's pretty awesome." But the whole point of His death on the cross wasn't to simply die and rise again, though that had a big part in it. Jesus died to bring us to heaven! He took every single one of your sins on his soul and damned himself to get you to heaven!
Do you get this? The Son of God DAMNED himself to Hell so that you could live with Him in heaven - He let Himself be torn away from the Trinity in order to give you salvation! This is the meat of Easter! This is the stuff that really matters! The physical dying and rising is a huge part of Easter, but look past the physical and see the spiritual ramifications this act had as well!
It's easy to downplay the significance of these events like Easter because they're annual and become a routine part of our lives. Be careful you're not taking part in Easter just because you feel like you have to. Stay home Easter Sunday if you feel this way; you can probably get a lot more spiritual working from a solo Bible study than you can from a congregational meeting if this is the case. Just try to make sure you understand why you are taking part in the recognition of this holiday before you routinely go to church tomorrow.
Tomorrow, when you wake up, think of your new life that you received 2,000 years ago by the cross. Think about the love that God has for you that He would give his life and his comfort in order that you might experience it. Think of God's unbelievable affection for us, and you will most likely find yourself quietly (or not so quietly) praising Him joyfully.
That's all I have to say about that. Interestingly enough, this did not occur to me while working at Orange Leaf; I was comfortably enjoying The Hound of the Baskervilles by Stained Glass Theater Joplin when my mind started rolling this over.
Grace and Peace
-- Malachi
Happy Easter!
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