Death In His Grave

Tomorrow is Easter. Well, I guess today is technically Easter since it's 5 minutes past midnight but somehow I think time zones are irrelevant in discussions like this.

Lots of people are gearing up to discuss the death and resurrection of Christ and what that means to us as Christians. This topic has been exhaustively written about by theologians and skeptics alike. As a regular person, though, I sat back and tried to think about what it means to me. I'm no great theologian, I have very mundane and regular thoughts (though I'd like to think otherwise) and chances are I will never be a great speaker who elaborates so eloquently on the love of Christ.

So I thought.....if we can't all be spectacularly gifted Christians (and I say that with a trifle of sarcasm in my voice) why would God take the time or make the effort or EVEN CARE to save someone like me. I'm not a serial murderer but I'm flawed and subject to the side effects of sin. As my friend, Stephen, says, "Sin is a self-inflicted wound." So why would God waste his time on me?

There is no explanation. Not one that makes sense anyway. An infinite and flawless being made himself flesh and dwelled among men to experience our grief and pain and then he offered himself as a sacrifice for the redemption of my sins. Miraculously, on the 3rd day of death he was raised and weeks later ascended back to heaven.

Um, no offense, but that's a weird story. Sounds a bit Sci-Fi, right, maybe a little hard to believe? Strangely though, I've never had as much trouble believing this story as much as I have had difficulty believing that he did it for me.....and WILLINGLY. For all the great men and women on earth, maybe........but for me? Why?

The easiest analogy for me has always been my kids. I don't always like what they do, but I always love them. I don't even enjoy doing everything for them but I would do it in a heartbeat if it meant saving their lives. I would die for them to live.

Matthew 7:11, "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?" As a flawed human, I have some inkling of how deep a love can go that would drive someone to act what appears to be irrationally for the benefit of someone else. Someone I love.

There's a song about Easter written by John Mark McMillan. I've attached the video. But my favorite lines of the whole song say:

He has cheated Hell and seated us above the fall,

In desperate places he paid our wages once and for all.

That's what Easter means to me.

Because He Lives

It's an old song typically associated with The Gaither Vocal Band and their infamous gatherings. It's a song I grew up hearing in church. It's a song that still stirs my heart.....especially as we go into this Easter season.

Because He Lives

I can face tomorrow,

Because He Lives

All fear is gone,

Because I know

Who holds the future,

My life is worth the living just because he lives.

Jokingly my husband and I were doing a rousing rendition of this for our daughters tonight and an amazing thing happened. As I was singing I realized that this song is more than just about death and resurrection. It's about living.

Most days I am so caught up in the doing of life that I forget that I am supposed to be living it.

And I forget the source of life is Christ, especially when I am feeling depressed or sad. This song's last verse talks about the pain of death and "crossing over," but what about the pain of life? I have been full enough of the pain of life to wish for death and have felt as if I could not face tomorrow and its worries and bothers.

God Sent His Son, they called him Jesus,

He came to love, heal and forgive.

He lived and died to buy my pardon

An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!

His living and dying to buy my pardon is amazing......it's grace incarnate. But what he also came - as this song puts it - to love, heal and forgive. Because he lived to love, heal and forgive I can face the future with hope.