Easter Reflections

Easter was tough this year for two main reasons. First being that I wasn't very emotionally involved like usual. In other words, I didn't really mourn that my savior was crucified on Good Friday and I didn't really rejoice in the fact that He rose three days later. Everything is a mental assent and not a foundational truth that resides in my heart, that defines who I am. But I also understand that Christ can bring together my head and my heart and so I know that as I abide in Him and Him in me there will come a day when I will be emotionally involved. And I cannot wait for the day that I weep on Good Friday and then rejoice with singing and dancing on Easter Sunday because my Lord has risen and through Him I have received new life.

Second, I find that most sermons preached on Easter Sunday are not the Gospel; at least not the full Gospel. I always hear preached that Jesus died so that we can have eternal life...let's take communion. But that's not it, that's not the Gospel story, that is NOT the good news! If Jesus only died so that we can have eternal life then where is the immediate significance to my life. There's no power, no life in a Gospel that says Jesus died so that when I die I can go to heaven. Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected so that I could die TODAY heaven can come through me to this world TODAY. I can participate in Christ's crucifixion as well as His resurrection TODAY through the Holy Spirit. I am justified, a new creation, redeemed by the blood of the lamb and am no longer a sinner. And yes I will follow Christ (the first among the resurrected) in the bodily resurrection when God's kingdom is fully established, but the cross has significance for today.

I guess hearing preached that the cross is only good for eternal life sounds to me like a very weak and self-centered Gospel. Salvation is not a one-way ticket to heaven, it was the act of Jesus saying not my will but yours be done that allowed God's kingdom to break in that we can now participate in.