A celebration worth having.
I wonder sometimes if the reason we don’t get excited about following Jesus is because we haven’t really seen Him resurrected. We cry when we watch movies like “The Passion” and the thought of someone giving their life for us astounds and encourages us to live decent lives, but I wonder if sometimes we stop there.
I’ve heard it questioned several times this year about why Christmas gets more celebrating (at least a month, every year more) than Easter does, but Christmas is of course a token holiday, representing (religiously) the birth and the life of Jesus. Nobody has problems with his life, or even His death and everyone might believe that it was necessary.
It’s the Sunday thing that we have difficulty with, therefore we hesitate to follow Him with our whole hearts. It’s the saying out loud that someone who lived in this world, who talked to real people, and who did some great things and gave some great speeches, then had the power to get up after His gruesome death and walk the earth some more, then be taken up to heaven.
I wonder whether our minds really wrap around that one very well, because of our imperialistic approach to the world today.
I’m hardly one to talk. I hate when people overdue the spiritual stuff. The term “God is so good” just might apply to things like you finding your contact on the floor or being able to figure out which color of shirt to wear to the office today, but somehow I’ve felt that saying it out loud every two seconds waters it down to the point of absurd piety.
But in order to really become a Christ follower, someone who doesn’t just talk game, but lives it, there must be a sincere belief that Easter isn’t just a respectful holiday where “I should probably go to church”, but it should represent a belief I have that Jesus lived on this earth, gave his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world,and then rose again on the third day as a testimony to his deity, making Him my Savior.
This Easter, I challenge you to wrestle with that thought which the apostles in Scripture call the Good News. Grapple with the fact that Jesus is indeed alive and is our “mediator between God and us”. Launch into a belief that his victory over death gives you and me new life, and that is a celebration worth having.
Until next time…
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Here’s an article making your point:
Why Easter stubbornly resists the commercialism that swallowed Christmas.
Interesting stuff Marty. And that article was quite interesting, Ian.
I’ve started wondering about the St. Patrick’s day and (to a lesser extent) Mardi Gras. These holidays have been reduced to execuses for drinking to excess.
I wonder if we sometimes have these mental scales in our head: I’m going to drink more green beer than I should on St. Patty’s day but then I’ll balance the scales by going to church on Easter, so it’ll all work out in the end.
Thanks Ian for the article. It was a good one.
And Jeffrey, your points never cease to amaze me. I believe that’s a fair assesment of what a lot of people think.