Category Archives: Easter

Easter Morning #1

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As Easter dawned this year, I felt the same sense of relief I always feel. Good Friday had passed, along with that mysterious Saturday when we aren’t sure exactly where the spirit of Jesus was or what he was doing. Once Sunday dawns, the mourning and uncertainty are blown away like leaves in a gust of wind.

I like to think about that first Easter, putting together the details we read in the 4 Gospels. When the women were walking to Jesus’ tomb, they were consumed with grief over losing their beloved friend and Lord. According to Scripture, they walked to the garden cemetery while it was still dark, wondering how they were going to get into the tomb to lovingly apply spices to Jesus’ body.

Scripture hints that it was only shortly before they arrived that God the Father had dispatched two angels from heaven, telling them, “It’s time! Go to Jerusalem and open my Son’s grave!”

A stone rolled awayMatthew tells us one of those angels rolled the heavy stone away, no doubt a task of great joy to this heavenly being. I can just imagine Jesus sitting up on that stone slab with the angels’ lightning-like clothing illuminating the dark tomb in that pre-dawn hour. Maybe the angels helped him remove his grave clothes. Maybe they even brought along a new outfit for him to wear.

And then it was time. Jesus stood, put one foot in front of the other, and walked away from death and out of that tomb! And it seemed that within minutes he encountered Mary Magdalene. He was still close to the tomb entrance, and he told her not to touch him, since he hadn’t yet been to the Father, which leads us to believe he was newly-risen. (Not too long after that he had no problem letting people touch him.)

Mary weepingThough Mary was so shrouded in grief she didn’t recognize Jesus at first, she quickly came around (“Rabboni!”) and knew who he was, believing that somehow he had come alive again. And there it was: Happy Easter #1! Mary didn’t wait to understand it all. She just believed.

The same is true for us today, nearly 2000 Easters later. There is much we can’t figure out about that first Easter, and we crave answers to our questions. But whether we understand it or not isn’t what matters. The important thing is that we believe it.

It’s a great privilege to live on this side of Christ’s resurrection. And each year, as we go into the sadness of Good Friday, we already know our Happy Easter morning is a guarantee. But may that awareness never dull the glorious truth of what Jesus did for Mary Magdalene on that first Easter… and for all the rest of us who believe.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)

Difficult Directions

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All of us drive absent-mindedly once in a while, especially if we’re moving along familiar roads. But when we’re in new territory, we have to depend on the signs to be accurate.

A swiveled signA while ago I was on an unfamiliar 5-lane street during rush hour in heavy traffic when I came upon something strange. At the edge of a strip-mall parking lot, a stop sign seemed out of place and was confusing drivers on the main thoroughfare. Were they supposed to stop? Some were. Others weren’t. And cars leaving the mall parking lot were entering traffic without so much as a pause.

I turned into the lot and found a parking spot, then walked back to the stop sign for a better look. Sure enough, it had been tampered with, swiveled 90 degrees, causing drivers to do the opposite of what they were supposed to do.

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Early this morning, while trying to get my heart ready for Palm Sunday, I thought about the traffic flow into Jerusalem that day 2000 years ago. Of course it was mostly foot-traffic then, though there was one very important donkey with the Son of God sitting on it.

AdulationWhen adoring crowds pushed toward Jesus in a type of Jerusalem rush-hour, there was no impatience or road rage, only joy and adoration. His miracles of healing had shown people he could do things no one else could do, and everyone on the Jerusalem road that day was deferring to him as part of a plan to make him their king.

There were no stop signs, and popular enthusiasm was propelling Jesus in a forward direction. A few days later, however, the “directional signs” had been swiveled around. The zeal to make him king had come to a screeching halt, and the mob of well-wishers had turned on him.

Thankfully one person continued in a forward direction anyway, despite discouraging signs all around him. Jesus resolutely drove himself toward the cross and his own excruciating death while his supporters hightailed it in other directions. But instead of being influenced by the reversal of the traffic flow, he looked only to his Father for a definitive sign of what to do.

Although Jesus had been to Jerusalem many times, he knew this visit would be different than all the others. He dreaded it but continued his forward pace anyway.

Sitting in church this morning, I was flooded with appreciation that even when he could have made a turn, he resolutely kept going straight ahead, all the way to Calvary.

“He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51)

Me, Myself, and I

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The Christian life is all about being other-oriented. Jesus put it this way: we’re to love others as much as we love ourselves.

That’s a tough one, simply because we come into the world all set to put ourselves first. If we aren’t sure of that, all we have to do is look at young children. Their behavior shouts, “Me first!”

Take two-year-old Emerald, for example.

EmeraldOnce in a while she’ll crawl up on my couch just to gaze at herself in the mirror behind it, the only mirror she can reach. She’ll talk to her reflection, make faces, tip her head back and forth, and jump up and down, all while intently watching her mirror image. And she smiles long smiles at herself as if to say, “You, Emerald, are my very favorite!”

This natural egocentricity is something we try hard to diminish in our children as we raise them. As soon as they can understand, we insist they say please and thank you, even when they aren’t feeling it, just to force them to focus on someone else. As we continue to train them, resistance to “me last” is common.

Truth be told, though, all of us have one foot in that camp. To put others ahead of ourselves we have to make a conscious decision, since even in adulthood it doesn’t come naturally.

Jesus was a faithful example of putting the needs of others ahead of his own. Following him through the Gospels, we see he was often hungry, tired, burned out from ministry, and stretched thin by nonstop commitments. He was so busy doing for others that he rarely did anything for himself.

Yet he never lost sight of his overarching purpose: to bring salvation to people like us. Without him and his willingness to put us ahead of himself, we would have been left to save ourselves, a setup for disaster. We could talk to our mirrors around the clock and never come up with a way to cleanse ourselves from sin.

If Jesus had refused to put others ahead of himself, we would be in a fix for which there was no repair. Instead he set self-interest aside and focused on us, enduring the cross.

Morning mirrorAs I look into a mirror at the beginning of each day, maybe I should talk to my reflection and say, “Subdue your me-first attitude today, just like Jesus did for you. And then do something for someone else as a thank you gift to him.”

“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (1 Timothy 1:5)