Happy Easter

Easter has become more synonymous with a rabbit and colored eggs than with its original meaning. There's nothing inherently wrong with Easter egg hunts or white chocolate bunnies. I'm sure most of it is all part of Hallmark's marketing team's efforts to keep their jobs, as opposed to some sinister plot to have a holiday that used to be about the day a man—who some thought to be the Jewish Messiah, the Redeemer—came back to life after being shamefully executed like a common criminal. Maybe that's naive, but I'd like to give people the benefit of the doubt...

This particular Easter is really moving to me, especially after reading "Surprised by Hope". I can't really put it into words very well—believe me, I've attempted doing so in this post several times already... I guess what I'm wrestling with is... It's not hard to believe Jesus died on the cross. History will confirm those details. Every person in Jerusalem at that time was aware of the would-be Messiah who had come to town, surrounded by controversy and whispered hopes. And every person, believer or not, knew the story of how Jesus Christ's life came to a screeching halt on a bloody cross, between two common thieves. No one started singing "Thank you for the cross, my friend" (No offense, Matt Redman, seriously! We're singing that song in church tomorrow. It's a good song!) Defeat hung in the air. Hopes dashed against reality. Or just another crazy guy who had a lot of hype and couldn't follow through. Or another rebel squashed before he became too much of a problem. It didn't matter what you thought of Jesus—you still knew He was dead. It isn't hard to believe that the crucifixion of Jesus happened. People won't look at you funny for believing that.

And I do believe that. I believe that Jesus Christ was killed on a cross, laying down His life as a ransom for my life and for yours. Our sin, our bent towards selfishness, rebellion and fear, defeated in a act of love and sacrifice by a holy God. That's not the hard part. But I also believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead. I believe that you don't let yourself get martyred as a disciple for a delusion or a lie that you made up. I believe that the historical evidence available to us, and the coherent collaboration of the gospel accounts, as well as the rapid growth of Christianity in those early years all points to the amazing fact that SOMETHING miraculous happened three days after Jesus was crucified and all signs point to resurrection. And I believe that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God began His work of rescue, of re-creation. Behold, He is making all things new!

It's weird to say that I believe some guy two thousand years ago, whom I've never met physically, came back to life. It sounds foolish. But I know I'm not an idiot, and I'm not just believing what I've been taught. Something in my soul, that I can't explain, rings true with the hope and longing for all things to be made right. For justice to prevail, for good to triumph over evil. For death not to be the end, not to have the final word.

And in the Resurrection, God says, "Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory?"

I'm grateful for a holy God, stooping to become human, to experience all that we know as humanity, feeling the weight of our sin and shame on the cross, all to show His great love and goodness. But if Jesus Christ stayed in the tomb, that would be sentimental hogwash. A great tragedy. But if God raised Jesus from the dead? Then how great and strong is the passion with which God loves us. Not merely that He endured a painful death on our behalf. If that was the end, then death would still be stronger than God. There would be no fancy way to say it—death won. But we celebrate Easter precisely because in the recesses of our minds or maybe for some of us, just our cultural heritage, we are celebrating the reality that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and defeated death itself.

And the theological basis that allows us to understand ourselves to be crucified with Jesus Christ, releasing us from the bondage of living short-sighted self-protecting lives of sin, is the same theological basis we have of understanding that if we were crucified with Christ, then we are raised with Christ to new life. To a living hope. Death is not the end. God will raise us from the dead, like Jesus Christ was on the first Easter, and we will experience a deeper, fuller Life than we have so far, something far greater than we can ask or imagine.

I think that's why this Easter feels different to me. I'm really wrestling with the implications of believing in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. The grace and mercy of the Cross have always been comforting to me. Reassuring of God's love, especially when I feel I least "deserve" it. But the Resurrection? I'm only just beginning to imagine with hope, for all that it means for me, for us.

Happy Easter, my blog-reading friends.