Easter Thoughts

A little while ago my girlfriend Jacki and I were asked for our combined thoughts on Easter...here's what we came up with.

Easter. For many, a time full of fuzzy white rabbits that lay Cadbury mini eggs, a Sunday afternoon hunt for chocolate for young children, or a time for families to gather over a meal.


OR


Easter. For others, a time full of images of bloodshed, the nail pierced hands, and resurrection from the dead.


It is easy to lose sight of what is really important during these Easter festivities, just as it is with other major holidays. For the Christian, Easter is meant to be a time of praise and rejoicing, in the midst of sermons describing a horrific form of capital punishment.


Songs such as "In Christ Alone" take on a deeper meaning when examined in the light of the Cross. The believer is humbled when revisiting the base of the Cross. "Here in the love of Christ I stand, Here in the death of Christ I live, Bought with the precious blood of Christ, Here in the power of Christ I'll stand." These four seemingly simple lines of song are incredibly powerful when we keep in our mind that these actions actually took place in space-time history. That these are not just nice sounding lyrics or beautiful notes played on a piano, but instead descriptions of a sacrifice so vast that the believer will never fully comprehend.


Many Christians find themselves growing weary of hearing about the 'old rugged cross,' claiming "Yeah, Christ died for my sins, then he rose from the dead. Check. I got it, now lets move on. Let's tackle something else." What we fail to realize is that you never move on from the Cross. If the Christian exhaustively understood the work of the Cross, they would stop sinning. But seeing as this is not possible on this side of Heaven we must cling tightly to the Cross, holding on with everything we have. John Stott says "The Cross is the blazing fire at which the flame of our love in kindled, but we have to get near enough for its sparks to fall on us."


Remembering the work of the Cross is practiced most during Easter, but it should be at the forefront of our thoughts and actions every single day. From worship to work, from Sunday morning services to Wednesday afternoon coffee dates, we are never to stray away from the Cross of Christ.


Romans 3:23-26 says:

23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.


That's the Gospel of Jesus Christ... that's Easter!