Happy Easter/Resurrection Sunday!
What better than to have a blog post this glorious day. I hope you all are ready for this part 2! If not, then oh well! The last time I discussed that we don't take God seriously and we tend to take His love for granted. Today, of all days, is one that we as Christ followers do not take as seriously or really meditate on what today actually means for Christians.
I would say to close your eyes and imagine what I am about to say but then obviously you wouldn't be able to read the rest of this post. So instead, envision yourself 2,000 years ago, watching Jesus being crucified right in front of your eyes. You had been following Him the past 3 years and He told you this day would come. You begin to wonder and doubt if he really is the Son of God. You begin to think to yourself, "Why doesn't He just come off of the cross now and end this pain? Why doesn't He just prove everyone wrong right now?" You notice how dark the sky has become. Then you remember that it is only about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, which means the sun should be at it's highest and brightest. Right at the moment, Jesus takes His last breath and then something strange happens. You notice your knees begin to buckle in but not because of the grief or feeling as though you may pass out. You look around to see everyone's knees buckling, bodies shaking, weapons falling, people stumbling, horses losing control, and then you hear the loudest tear echo throughout the area. People are shouting and going mad! At that moment, you hear the guards exclaim "Surely he was the Son of God!" (Matthew 27:54).
For the next two days you begin to doubt if Jesus was telling the truth. You gave up your entire life for Him and it seems like He fell through wiht His promise. Why couldn't He have come off of the cross? Why did you give up your life for Him? Maybe everyone was right in that you were crazy for believing in Him. Maybe He was a crazy man. Even though you saw what happened, you had to convince yourself that only a crazy person would put themselves through something that extreme for people who killed Him. There is no way you could love people that much to allow them to kill you.
It is day 3, the day Jesus said He would come back. You hear nothing. You don't see anything different. You knew He was faking and just wanted attention. You then create a plan on how you would leave town without anyone seeing and possibly persecuting you. Just as you are ready to leave with your disguise on and bags packed, you open the door. You feel your heart sink into your stomach. Your bags drop to the ground. You cannot believe your eyes! You then hear the words, "do not be afraid." At that moment you fall down to your knees in tears, kissing His wounded feet and worshipping Him. He then lifts up your head, embraces you, and wispers in your ear, "I forgive you."
Why is Easter so important and what does it have to do with us not taking God seriously? Well if it wasn't for the resurrection, Christianity would be a fraud. The whole basis of Christianity is the fact that Jesus fully lived out what thousands of years of prophets claimed He would do. Not only did he died but He rose from the dead! He is not like other prohets who died and stayed dead. He took on EVERY SINGLE SIN in the world BUT He did not allow sin to defeat Him. Jesus took God seriously, trusted Him, and was able to fulfill God's plan for His life. As Luke 24:7 says "The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again." God always keeps His promise but we give up on Him too quickly. We don't want to wait for the 3 days until the promise. We want God to bless us when WE want it, NOT when it is supposed to be given to us. We don't believe or take God seriously because we as humans are incapable of doing the things He does. We minimize God's power to our own and deny His ability to do what He says He can do. He will always keep His promises and show up in supernatural ways that we may never be able to understand. What is funny is that His timing is ALWAYS perfect! Far greater than we could have planned ourselves! It is OK to not be able to fully comprehend God's power. All we are required to do is love and trust in Him. "...blessed are those you have not seen [me] and yet belived" John 20:29.
I pray you all have a great Easter and possible part 3 is coming your way!
If you have any questions, feel free to email me! Thank you!