I made plans many weeks ago to go to Cuba with a relative. Later we realized that we'd be gone on Easter. Easter, unlike most holidays is not celebrated on the same date every year. There is a precise formula used - the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
What is the most important thing about Easter to you? I hope you have good memories of coloring eggs, searching for candy to fill a special Easter basket, going to church with your family, having a special dinner, often lamb, reminding us that Jesus is the Lamb of God who sacrificed Himself so we may live eternally in heaven.
If Jesus had died a cruel death on a cross, was buried and that was the end of the story, there wouldn't be anything special about this day or about this man. Everyone dies eventually. But Jesus rose again on the third day. I Corinthians 15 tells us that He first appeared to His disciples, and after that appeared to more than five hundred people. The apostle Paul said that if Christ had not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is our faith.
Job wrote hundreds of years before the death and resurrection of Christ. . .
"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes - "
Job 19: 25 - 27
All those who saw the risen Jesus will give witness to the fact that our bodies also will be raised to new life after death. When Jesus comes to earth again, it won't be as a baby lying in a manger, or a beaten man nailed to a cross. He will come as the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, our Redeemer and Savior. And do you know what will happen?
It is written: "As surely as I live says the Lord, every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God."
Romans 14:11
Everyone will then know who He is and bow down before Him.
Scripture says that each one of us will give an account of ourselves to God. In other words, we'll stand before God and be judged. Do you know how God will judge us? Only one thing will matter at this point. . .do we know Jesus as Lord? Those of us who have a personal relationship with Jesus had all of our sinful ways die on the cross with Him. We've been washed clean, not because we were 'good' or religious' but because Jesus loved us and paid the penalty for all the wrong we've done. He entered heaven to appear for us in God's presence. Hebrews 9:24. God sees His Son in us, forgiven, and able to live eternally in heaven.
That most famous and oft repeated verse, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" comes alive and penetrates our hearts as we celebrate Resurrection Sunday.
I'll be writing about how the Cubans celebrate Easter in a couple of weeks. I wish you all many blessings in this most holy season.
Lord, I pray that everyone who reads these words has a new understanding of who You are and what You've done for those who believe in You. We know that our human intellect fails us when it comes to spiritual truth. We are dependent on you to reveal truth to us - that You Lord are the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father accept through you. (John 14:6)
