Easter, much like Christmas, has been completely hijacked by commercialism and greed. Don't get me wrong, when I was a kid and again when my now-grown children were young, I loved everything about Christmas and Easter. It was, and still is, a magical time.
But, Christmas is not about Santa Claus and Easter is not about the Easter Bunny. Everyone knows what Christmas and Easter mean to Christians, and I've honestly never understood why non-Christians, particularly atheists, celebrate even the secular version of Christmas and Easter. But I'm not writing about that today.
I just wanted to take a few minutes to blog about what Easter means to me.
In case you don't know, Easter is the day that Christians celebrate Jesus Christ's resurrection from death. The resurrection, the conquering of death forever, is one of THE pillars of the Christian faith. I know Christmas gets most of the attention, and it's my very favorite holiday, but everything in the Christian faith points toward Easter. Yes, you can't have a death, burial and resurrection without a birth, so I'm not saying one is more important than the other, necessarily. I'm just saying that I am afraid that too many people "miss" the significance of Easter.
The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His conquering death once and for all, matters to me personally because I'm the king of all sinners. Am I literally? No, of course not. But, I know me. Just as you know your ways, I know my thoughts, my actions and all of the ways that I fall short of honoring God. And when I look at the cross, the suffering, the worst beating in the history of mankind...and realize that my sinful thoughts, actions and ways helped put him there, well, I'm humbled. And brokenhearted. And ashamed. And challenged.
This past Sunday my pastor said that in a recent survey of "Christians," 25% of them didn't believe in the resurrection. Didn't believe in the resurrection?! As I said before, the resurrection is a major pillar of Christianity. You can't dismiss one of the major pillars and still consider yourself a follower of that religion. Does the resurrection sound spectacularly unbelievable? Yes. Yes it does. Let's be honest, God becoming a man and coming to earth in the form of a homeless, Middle Eastern son of a carpenter is pretty "out there" too. But see, that's what faith is. It's believing the unbelievable. Yes, it defies reason, and that makes it hard for some to believe. But, much of the world defies reason. People say that they can't see God so they deny his existence. You can't see love either, but you can see examples of it all around us. You can't see evil either, but it exists everywhere. People ask why God allows horrible things to happen over and over. They want to know why God doesn't intervene and just stop evil everywhere. My answer is always the same, "Because this isn't heaven. If things were perfect here, then we wouldn't need God." As it is, things aren't perfect here and we definitely need God.
Easter shows us the price that was paid on our behalf. People have trouble with this. I know that I certainly don't feel worthy of anyone taking that kind of beating for me. Interestingly, I feel that way because it's the truth. I'm NOT worthy and neither are you. That's the beauty of it all. Yet, this feeling of unworthiness contributes to the reason that people don't, or won't, accept it. We don't deserve it. We deserve to be punished. No one should stand in our place and take our punishment. But that's what that beating was about. Make no mistake, the pictures we see of Jesus on the cross are highly sanitized. There was blood everywhere. There had to be. Do you understand what all was included in that beating? Have you ever studied it? Study it. You'll never be the same. It was the worst beating in the history of the world...because it had to be. I just don't think people truly realize how awful it was.
When Tyler was a little boy, he got into a little trouble in Pre-K. Nothing serious, he's never been in serious trouble. I don't even remember what he did, but I had to go to the school. I told him that if I ever had to come over there again, he wouldn't like the result. Well, I had to go again. I took him to the bathroom and gave him a stick (it was actually a broom handle) and told him that I was going to turn around and I wanted him to hit me with it. He didn't want to do it and said, "No, daddy. No." But I told him that I wanted him to feel what it felt like to have to spank someone he loved. He was very upset. Tyler is very tenderhearted. But he did it. Not hard and I had to tell him to do it again, but he did it. I never had to go to his school again. I can't recall him ever getting in trouble at school again.
What if we personalized the crucifixion of Jesus like that? According to some fan sites, Mel Gibson, who directed "The Passion of the Christ" appears in the movie, though no one sees his face. That's because it's not there. Only Gibson's hands appear. They are the hands who nail Christ's hands to the cross. It's symbolic of the guilt he feels over the crucifixion. Sin nailed Jesus to the cross. Yours, mine, Mel Gibson's and everyone else who's ever taken a breath.
These things are easy to miss when we are hunting for Easter eggs and eating Easter candy. But, that's not Easter. Easter began as a bloody mess, but it ends in victory. Jesus conquered death and the grave. Easter is a celebration of this victory. Sunday, my pastor said that we SHOULD celebrate the resurrection...and that Christians are quite good at it...but we also need to be mindful of what got Him to the grave. You did. I did. He took that beating for us.
Take a minute to watch this and meditate on the price that was paid for you and me:
