What is Easter? It is so much more than eggs, ham, lilies, and bunnies. It is so much more than dressing up on Sunday morning, watching the sun rise, and singing “Up From The Grave He Arose”. It is so much more than saying we believe, attending a prayer meeting, and tithing our income. There’s so…much…more.
It’s realizing death does not win. It’s understanding sin does not have the final word. It’s comprehending evil can be redeemed. Fighting can be overcome by forgiveness. Greed can be overcome by goodness. Abandonment can be overcome by acceptance. Loathing can be overcome by love. Criticism can be overcome by compassion. Selfishness can be overcome by sacrifice. Horror can be overcome by hope.
If death is final, we have no hope. If your fate is sealed, there’s no reason to live. If hell has the last word, we are doomed. If we are still saying we have to earn our way out of hell, then what does Jesus’ death and resurrection even mean? But darkness doesn’t drive away the light. Jesus reaches into our hell and pulls us out. He did this on the cross, he is doing it now, and he will do it in the future. He reaches in and pulls us out so that we’ll reach back and pull another, and they’ll pull another, and they’ll pull another, until the whole world is saved.
This Spirit of God, this same Spirit who was in Jesus, is in me and in you. The Creator of All is doing this. He is bringing the truth of me and the truth of you to light, that we are the children of God. We are the ones made in God’s image. And Jesus didn’t just do all of this for me. He did it for everyone. He’s brought us life, new life, resurrection life.
From Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 15 in The Message:
“The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s! It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? It’s resurrection, resurrection, always resurrection, that undergirds what I do and say, the way I live.”
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