This weekend much of the world celebrated Easter. Although many people did not necessarily celebrate it, most of the world was at least confronted with it by reason of it being a statutory holiday in nations with Christian roots. In a world unspoiled by COVID19, little hands would have eagerly hunted for the brightly-labelled chocolate eggs strewn across lawns, dropped down by helicopter (yes, this actually happened), or hidden and revealed by tightly-sealed clues by parents. Churches all across the world would welcome men and women, the young and the old, for a time of reflection and thanksgiving for the supernatural gift of Passover. Families would gather around the Passover meal with grateful hearts, experiencing anew the anguish of Good Friday, the victory of Resurrection Sunday, the contemplation of God's display of wrath and mercy through the means of a cross.
Easter is about a love story. A redemption story. It is not a clean, sterilized story that sparkles with the pastel colors we associate with Easter. It is messy, because it involves us, and we are messy, and broken, and utterly incapable of fixing ourselves. We are all infected with something far worse than COVID19. It is the virus of sin, and the mortality rate is one hundred percent. From the moment we are born, we exert a propensity toward rebellion, toward destruction. The human heart is the wellspring of great evil and suffering, as testified by two world wars, genocides of nations, and countless injustices performed daily by "good" people upon their fellow human beings. The human heart is anything but good, in spite of what our "enlightened" centers of learning would like us to believe. This sin-problem is so great that it separates us from our Creator God, a God whose eyes are so pure that He cannot behold evil. It is just that our sins be punished, and the punishment is nothing short of death-death physical and separation eternal. God cannot close His eyes and dismiss our lies, our blasphemy, our idolatry, and roll the red carpet into His house we know as heaven.
Why would God allow His Son to be humiliated, tortured, blasphemed and ultimately given over to die the death of a criminal? It begins with who God is. God IS love, and love gives, and forgives, and transforms. God loves every single one of us with a love that is independent of our stature or life journey, and in His love He yearns to commune with us now and forever. God's heart holds the perfect balance of justice and mercy and He can administer one without cancelling the other. When Jesus died, He died the death that you and I deserved for those sins that we so easily dismiss: our theft, our "white" lies, our hate, our lust... He was separated from God upon that tree so that we would not be eternally separated from Him. He endured God's wrath so we wouldn't have to. Before He gave up His breath, He cried "It is finished." We no longer have to build a stairway to heaven (not that we ever could). We no longer have to torture our bodies and souls in an effort to bridge the gulf between us and God. All our work to reach God, all our efforts to atone for our wrongs is finished. All that remains is faith -faith pure and unadulterated by human intervention.
God's Word says: "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9). It takes faith that Jesus Christ is God's final and only provision for our sins. It takes a spoken confession to make Jesus Christ Lord of our lives. He is not willing to share the throne of our hearts with other gods, such as materialism or new age philosophies. It takes humility and repentance to recognize that we are deeply polluted by sin and in need of rescuing, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
There is no better news in all the world than the message of Easter. That we can be forgiven, restored and have peace with God is the greatest gift. It cost God His precious Son to give, and it costs us nothing to receive. It will cost us everything to ignore: eternal separation from God in a place called Hell-a place of torment, darkness and unending sorrow. Look to Calvary, and behold Love wounded and bruised for us. Look to the empty tomb, and see Love crowned with victory and majesty. Listen within, and you will hear Love calling, seeking, wooing.