Today is Easter, the second most popular day to go to church after Christmas but I don’t know that we can truly fathom what this day commemorates, or how universal and celebratory this day is not just for Christians but for anyone that has walked the earth, is walking the earth and anyone who will. Somehow, Easter has become about eggs, chocolate, and candy but nothing is sweeter than salvation – than having a blessed assurance in Jesus Christ, and that is what we celebrate today!
Whether you are Christian or not, most people know that Jesus died for our sins, but it has become something we all know and even refer to (everyone knows John 3:16), but not necessarily something we are truly transformed by. We say we’d die for the people we love, but we don’t ever have to prove it, but Christ did and he died in the gruesomest of ways and in the most public of spectacles. There are many scriptures dedicated to the Last Supper, Judas’ betraying Jesus ( and the fact that Jesus knew he would do so), Jesus being hung on the Cross, starved and offered vinegar to drink, being pierced in His side, taunted, blasphemed and crowned with thorns on His head. I don’t even know if there was a word to truly encapsulate and describe all that torture, but what I keep coming back to is one scripture – “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8
When I think of that scripture, of the fact that Jesus hung on that cross for all humanity, for the very people who stood and watched Him die an inhumane death, for the very people who arrested Him on false charges, for the very people who questioned His power and authority as the Son of God, as well as for people like you and me who had yet to be created, I am humbled by this sacrifice and ultimate act of love. This is a day that’s context is important. Jesus didn’t just get on the cross and die – His birth of a virgin was preparing Him for this very moment. His life was in preparation for this moment – every miracle, every test, and every betrayal led Him to the cross. We hate that Judas betrayed Jesus and all the more confused by the fact that Jesus knew and yet, still washed his feet when He knew what would happen, but without Judas’ betrayal, Christ can’t get to the cross and if Christ doesn’t get to the cross, then He can’t intercede on our behalf, can’t die for our sins, and if none of that happens, then man can’t reconcile with God and you and I are in very big trouble. But Christ was able to wash Judas’ feet with the distinct knowledge of what was to come because like God, He loves us and like God, He extended grace and mercy to His brother and friend. Our flesh is confounded by this, by how Jesus could extend love, grace, and mercy to someone who would lead him to his death, but if Christ could do it knowing the imminent danger he would be placed in, what excuse do we have?
We know it is possible to live this Christian life because of Christ and on this Easter Sunday, I am merely here to remind us that not only should we celebrate this day for what it is, not a day to celebrate the Easter bunny or to stuff ourselves with chocolate, but a day of victory for Christ and for all mankind, but also to strip us of any excuse that we can’t extend kindness, grace, and mercy to the people we encounter who are our Judas’, who mean us no good because it is they who need to the light of Christ that is supposed to be dwelling in us. Like Christ, we can and we must look past their faults and see their needs and what they need is what Christ gave us when He died on the cross – grace.
At any moment on that cross, Christ could’ve come down, could’ve used His power and authority to set himself free and destroy the people in the crowd, that offered Him vinegar and pierced Him in his side, but He never said a mumbling word. He endured betrayal, torture, and blasphemy for our benefit – that we through Him would be set free. This is a special day and one worthy of celebration – of shouts of acclamation and praise unto God for His setting this plan in motion, for sacrificing His only son that we might have life and have it ever so much more abundantly!
Who else can say that their Savior lived and died and did so for those at that time, us in the present and those in the future? Whose else’s Savior paid the sin debt in full for humanity? Who else can say that their Savior not only endured, but overcame the world, and came to Earth as a man to prove and illuminate to us that this Christian walk, though challenging, is one that we are more than capable of walking through Him and by His example?
As we celebrate this day, let us always remember especially today but every day the ultimate sacrifice that was made on our behalf, as well as whenever we are feeling tempted, betrayed, frustrated that Christ felt these things just as we do and just like Christ, we can overcome that which is set against us. Greater is He that is in me than that is in the world. – 1 John 4:4
Remember He is no longer in the tomb, but risen and in our hearts, available for prayer, for guidance, and that through Him we are free! Enjoy your chocolates and egg-shaped candy, but never forget there is nothing sweeter than the salvation we have through Christ!
