Out of the 52 weeks that make up each year, this is the one known as "Holy Week."
This week we Christians focus our attention on what it cost Jesus, true God and true man, to set us right with God the Father.
(That's what Easter is all about, you know.)
It cost Jesus everything. He chose to give up his life for you and for me.
Why would he do that?
Because he loved us that much.
Because the only way we could be right with God on our own is by living a perfect life.
- Perfect in every thought we think
- Perfect in every word we say
- Perfect in everything we do.
You know what that means
We have no chance of meeting that holy standard on our own.
Jesus set us humans right with God. He paid for all our sins and failures on the cross.
Not because he had to but because he wanted to. He allowed himself to be nailed to that cross and gave up his life.
If you doubt that statement consider what Jesus did during the previous three years of his ministry.
- Stilled the storm
- Walked on water
- Multiplied 2 loaves of bread and 5 small fish into enough to feed 5,000 men--plus women and children with them--with food left over, besides.
- Healed the paralyzed and the blind
- Brought the dead back to life
Does that sound like one who was too weak to stand up for himself?
The Baby in the manger, the great teacher, the miracle worker, willingly submitted to this cruelty.
Jesus was nailed to that cross as punishment--and full payment--for our sins, not his.
All to set you and me--and all who believe--right with God.
On that Friday his followers only had time to take down his body from the cross and lay it in the tomb. Soon it would be sundown and the beginning of Sabbath, so they were forbidden to do more than wrap some cloths around his broken body.
Then came the third day, the day we know as Easter
Early that morning they went to the tomb to embalm his body and were dismayed to find the huge stone rolled away. An angel told them, "He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay." --Matthew 28:6 NIV
They found no trace of his body or his bones, only the cloths in which they wrapped his body before that Friday sundown.
That's not the end of the story. Over the following days Jesus appeared several times, speaking and interacting with his followers. He touched them and they touched him. They ate together.
Then he ascended back home to heaven, to his Father.
That's what we celebrate on Easter
Jesus did not stay dead.
Jesus Christ--"Christ" means "Savior"--rose from the grave and lives eternally.
His disciple John put it this way, in John 3:16-17:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
On Easter we celebrate Christ's victory because it is our victory, too. Because he lives eternally, we too live eternally.
The price of admission to life--life now and life after we die--is faith in Jesus as our Savior. Nothing more, nothing less.
It means freedom from guilt and fear.
No more beating ourselves up because we're not "good enough."
That's what we Christians call "grace"
God's Riches at Christ's Expense.
Joy in the sure knowledge that God loves us and forgives our sins, not just from today or yesterday, but any and every wrong we've ever done all through our lives.
That's why when we remember Jesus Christ's death and resurrection we also celebrate his life--and ours. Life abundant and free, ours for the taking.
Gentle reader, may you know that Easter JOY and freedom in Christ for yourself!
Lovingly,
Lenore
