The experience

Good Friday.  It's Easter season.  What does that mean?

On Monday, Easter is over.  The day will be passed.  Easter is over.  What does that mean?

I like to think that there is no difference.
I like to think that Easter is everyday.
I like to think that resurrection is recurring.
Daily.
Moment by moment.

What is the difference between a day set aside for celebration and family and church and sunrise services and chocolate bunnies and the next day of our lives and from then on?

As a person who is directly affected by the resurrection, what is the difference?
As a person who is forever changed by the blood of the Lamb, what is the difference?
As a person who is constantly redeemed and refined and renewed, what is the difference?

As a sinner, what is the difference?

It's not enough just to know about Easter.  It's not enough just to have head knowledge of it, to know all the theology behind it, the history.  It's not enough to know Easter.  We must experience it.

Let us experience Easter.
This year and forever more.

We have been saved!  We have been rescued!  He died for us and rose again and we pass by Him as He hangs on the cross.  We look at Him one Sunday as a Savior and forget about it the rest of our days.  We pass by the tree on the hill.  We pass by.

But blood can cause a scene.  Blood can turn heads and make you stop in your tracks.  Blood can make you do a double take, turn your head and look back and point and see and say, "What is going on there?"

And this is not any blood, this is perfect blood, this is blood of a sinless Man.  And then you find out that the Man is dying because of you.  So your eyes get wide and you thank Him once and walk away.

Our lives will never be the same.  We will never be the same.  The death, the gruesome, ugly, chilling death that sends shivers up my spine, makes my knees weak and my eyes water when I stop and think, "That Man loves me!"


That Man loves me and here He is dying!
Dying because of me!

How He suffered and died.  He bore all this grief that I feel every day, He bore all the shame that consumes me and suffocates me and makes me stay up toss and turn night after night.  It's heavy.  It's so heavy.  The justifications.  The idols.  And all these days I turn my face from Him and all these moments I lie and lust and cheat and steal.  The instant I give into temptation and the denials I serve to Him daily, I beautify them and place them on a platter and serve them right to Him.  Right to His face.

And He takes them.  How can He take them!  He takes them onto Himself.  He bears them on his back and with every stone we throw, He feels it.  It's just another sin He has to carry. It's just another sin.

It's just another day we live in disobedience.  It's just another idol we worship.  It's just another area of life we can't give up.  We say we can't give it up.  We won't.  It's just a little thing.  We say we will change tomorrow.

It's just another day.

It all adds up.  He carries it on His back and it gets heavy.  He is beaten and battered and bruised and mocked.  People rebuke Him, challenge and test Him and tell Him to come down.  If He is really the Lord can not He just come down? Can not He save Himself?

But He chose to save us instead.

We are the mockers. We are the spitters. We are the stoners. We are the sinners. We are the redeemed.

He redeemed us!  He gave us life when we had none!  When we were dead in our sins He revived us!  By His last breath we breathed our first.  The saints rise up when His head hangs down.  This is our life.  This is our Savior.

This is our Savior.  This is why we live.

He carried the weightiest burden of the world to deliver the weightiest truth to the world.


He chose me.
How could He chose me?


We have no other choice but to spend the rest of our lives pursuing this God.

He was satisfied with the will of the Father.
We aren't satisfied with Him.
He chose to pray instead of sleep.
We chose to sleep instead of pray.
So much sleeping.
He humbled Himself.
We raise ourselves up.
He carried others' burdens.
We turn from the troubles of others.
So much turning.
He loved.
We hate.
He was perfect.
We are sinful.
So much sinning.
He died.
We live.

So much living.

And it doesn't stop at the cross.  The grace doesn't stop there.  By the power of God, Jesus rose again!  He rose and lived and lives today.  The earth shakes with His power and the boulders can't bear to stay in place.  He is alive!  He is alive and death is no more.

A death like His cannot just be considered. A death like His means complacency is impossible.  A death like His deserves all of us.  It deserves all of our praise, every bit of our hearts and our souls and our deepest, deepest dreams and fears and insecurities and worries.  He handled death.  He can handle that.

Trust me child, I can handle that.

Our graves are being dug and our energy drained.  Our arms are being crossed and our eyes shut.  Our bodies are being lowered and our lives decayed.

But He says No!

He says there is no fear in death, He says there is no death at all but only life and life in all its fullness!  And He says it's eternal!

He says there is only Love and redemption and resurrection.

Everyday.

He reaches His hand down to us and pulls us out of these tombs.  Jesus doesn't do tombs.  He doesn't like tombs very much and He knows you won't either.  He pulls us out of these graves and makes us live.

And it's all because He died.
It's all because of Him.

It's not because of us.  When did the resurrection become ours to control?  When did Easter become about us?  When did it start being about our preferences?  When did we get to start choosing when to live and when to sleep?  When did we start worshiping this fuzzy feeling we get when we go to church on Sunday and read the Easter story once out-loud with our suits and ties and new dresses and baskets filled with candy and flowers and our schedules to abide by and our time constraints to meet and this and that...

When did we start living comfortable?
The King wore a crown of thorns and a robe of bruises and lashes and nails in His hands and His feet and a hole in His side.  He died on a cross!  That is not comfortable!

What about our Savior!  Have we experienced His life for us?  We worship a God who died to give us the greatest gift of all.  Grace.  We worship a God who died with our names on His mind.  We can run to Him.  We can talk to Him.  We are His because He bought us.

Adopted as sons and daughters.
We say thank you one day and walk away.

But this changes everything.

Let this reality sink into your heart today.  He loves you.  Marinate your heart in this love.  Let the resurrection permeate your heart to the core.  Let it fill the emptiest part of your heart.  Let it bring you to your knees and fill your eyes with tears.  Let it stir inside of you, His blood rushing wildly through your veins.  He loves you.  Meditate on this.  He bought our lives and gave them to us.  And we keep them for ourselves?  They are His.  It's all Yours, God.  He deserves it all.

Glory to the One!  God's murdered Son!  He took our sin and shame!  He is our hope and peace! Hallelujah to the One who died and rose and lives today!  Praise be the Him in the highest!

We are set free because of Him.  Free.

We have life because of Him.  Life.

It's not enough to know about Easter.  Experience it.  Every single day.

LMB

...I say "we" in this post because I mean me, too.