Easter Sunday

This morning I went to the Episcopalian Easter service. It was wonderful to be in a church in the Middle East...in Iraq, the home of Abraham, the probable site of the Garden of Eden...and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. This Easter I was particularly mindful of one of the significances of this event...the idea of new beginnings.

In Ephesians 4:22-24, Paul wrote:
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

The whole passage is a wonderful reminder to Christians today of what our personal spiritual heritage is: we were corrupt folks, filled with deceit and lust. If we could lie our way out of a situation, we'd lie. If we could steal from the office supply cabinet, we stole. If we could gossip and stab our friends in the back, we gossiped and betrayed those closest to us. If we could fly away with our passions with little chance of getting caught or getting somebody pregnant, we'd be the first one in line on the pleasure cruise. To be honest, all of us were pretty miserable, despicable creatures.

Would you like a good visual of just how disgusting and repulsive we looked? Close your eyes and imagine Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Imagine him hanging on the cross. Have you ever pictured the crown of thorns? I used to picture a wreath of rose bush limbs, with tiny thorns. It sounded irritating to me, but it never seemed that bad. But then one day I actually saw something that was probably closer to what the crown of thorns were actually like...thin dark brown branches with thorns that were probably 1/2 an inch to an inch long. These thorns were not the tiny thorns of rose bushes. When they were pushed on the head of our Savior, they cut deeply into his forehead, his temples, and the back of his scalp. These wounds, though not life-threatening alone, caused a tremendous amount of bleeding, as head wounds usually do. The flesh on his forehead and scalp was torn by these thorns. Picture his body. His skin, ripped to the bone on his back. Gashes opening up to the stinging air on his arms, his stomach, his legs. His face bruised and bloodied from slaps and punches. Let your mind zoom in on his wrists and his feet. Study the trauma that was caused by the wooden nails being pounded through his joints.

Can you see the Savior hanging on the tree in this condition? Why would God allow this to happen? Why would God allow the Savior of the world to be beaten and punished so severely? Why would He allow His son to suffer this torture? I cannot say that I have the perfect theological explanation for this. But I've read, and believe, that it was to remind us of just how disgusting our sin is to God. As grotesque as the body of Christ looked on the cross, our sins appear just as disgusting to God. In fact, I would say we appeared worse than the bloodied body of the Christ.

Notice I said appeared. For the story of Christ didn't end, and was never intended to end, on the cross. It is what happened after the cross that separated, and still separates, the men from the boys. It is what happened after the cross that separates old from new...the Old Testament from the New Testament...the old you from the new you...the ugly you from the beautiful you...the condemned you from the redeemed you.

We civilized, intellectualized, modernized types sometimes get our focus all wrong. We want to prove the divinity of Christ by using His brilliant teachings. We want to prove that Christ is the way through comparative studies of Jesus vs. Mohammed, Jesus vs. Buddha, etc. Because we are certain of our faith, we think we can out-argue and out-debate any other theological position on the planet. And while, I admit, I know that Christ is the Messiah, hence I would be pre-disposed to believe that the logic is on our side, it doesn't matter. Because in the end, it is faith in the resurrection that marks us as Christians. Without the resurrection, Christ would have been simply another philosopher. Yes, His life is filled with wonders and miracles that add to the proof, to believers, of His divinity. And I am not making light of this. The miracle of the virgin birth, to believers, is proof of His divinity. But if that was where the story stopped...a virgin birth, a sinless life, miracles while He walked with humanity...Christ would have been grouped with every other decent philosophical leader. But that is not the end of the story.

Christ rose from the grave! He conquered death! He is the Son of God! And the resurrection is proof of all of this. With his resurrection came the salvation of humanity.

In the beginning of the above passage, Paul describes our old self. Liar, pervert, thief, murderer. But this is what we were. We were condemned to death. The resurrection changed all of this.

Because we know that Christ rose from the dead, we know that He is the Son of God. It is that simple. Our certainty of this is the pivotal point in Christianity. Our certainty of this is what enables us to shed the skin of our old selves and put on the skin of our new selves. We are born again, a new creature freed from all the stains and transgressions of our old selves. Where there was once darkness and doom ahead of us, there is now light and salvation. Fear has been replaced with hope and confidence. Shame has been replaced with joy.

It is no accident that at the moment that Christ rose from the grave there was a bright light. That light still shines brightly for those who know that Christ is the Son of God. That light guides us through the darkness of this world even today. The light of Christ bathes our body, even now, and purifies our souls from our sins. It is our beacon to freedom. When the Messiah rose from the grave, he paved the way for our resurrection. Truly, this is the Son of God.