The Easter Story - The Most Powerful Story Ever Told

It's that time of year again, it's Easter! While we as Christians know why we celebrate Easter (not bunny rabbits and egg hunts!) we can often fall into the trap of thinking that Easter is such a serious and sad time because of how Jesus suffered on the Cross.

It's true Jesus did suffer, and we do not take that lightly. We should acknowledge the magnitude of Christ's pain and suffering for us on the Cross, however, JESUS DID NOT STAY ON THE CROSS. Jesus rose again from the dead and through His death He has given us the free gift of life, an abundant, eternal life. And it really is a gift, a beautiful, wonderful sacrifice, given in love and mercy and compassion and that is why we celebrate. That is why we should be happy. It is so important to focus on this truth rather than just leave Jesus hanging on the Cross which is unfortunately what a lot of believers do.

So, what does the resurrection mean to us? What is the significance?

It is good to remind ourselves, not only so that we can get a fresh revelation of our Lord and Saviour, but so that we can correctly share this wonderful truth with others.

Before we look at the resurrection, let us consider the events leading up to Jesus' death. This is important because Jesus had to go through so much before dying on the Cross. He endured suffering right up until the very moment of His crucifixion.

First of all, He and the disciples went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray because Jesus knew what was about to happen and He needed strength from God to endure it.

While there one of His best friends (Judas) lied about Him and got Jesus arrested! His other disciples tried to defend Him. Peter took out his sword and cut off one of the soldier’s ears. But even in all the confusion, anger and injustice Jesus healed the soldier’s ear.

Eventually all of His disciples abandoned Him, and Peter even denied knowing Him.

Jesus' mother Mary, was the only one who defended Him and tried to find Him and see what was happening to Him.

Then people lied about Him and had Him dragged from judge to judge until one of the judges said ok, “beat Him, then kill Him”. So they did, they beat Him so hard and with a whip with bits of metal in it that His skin was ripped to shreds. The Bible tells us that He was so disfigured, He hardly looked like a man (Isaiah 52:14). There is a school of thought that says His disfigurement wasn't only due to the beating He took but also to the sin and sicknesses that He bore in His body. The Bible says that He became sin (2 Corinthians 5:21) and that He took our sins and our sicknesses onto His body (1 Peter 2:24, Isaiah 53:4-5). The sin, sickness and disease of the whole of humanity disfigured Him so much that He was beyond recognition. He was given 39 lashes and then they killed Him by crucifying Him. A really slow painful death.

So Jesus was lied about, betrayed, rejected, spat on, beaten, kicked, humiliated and then eventually crucified and as Jesus was dying He could have asked God to come rescue Him but He knew that if He did that then we would never have our sins forgiven and would end up in hell when we eventually died. He knew that if He did not endure and suffer until the end that we would never be able to get healed if we got sick. He also knew that if sin wasn't taken care of, we could never have a close relationship with God because sin separates us from God. But Jesus loves us so much and desperately wants to have a relationship with us that He left heaven and His throne. He made Himself as small as a man, lived and died as a man and went through the pain (emotional and physical) of rejection by His own creation, so that He can redeem us back into a relationship with Himself.

Jesus, however, did not stay dead. Three days after He died God raised Him up and He is now seated at God’s right hand (Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 8:1, Hebrews 12:2) waiting for the day when He can come back for us all. This is the most powerful truth of the Easter story. Anyone can die but only Jesus, the Son of God, who IS God, can rise again. THIS is why the people tried to lie about Jesus' resurrection back then, because if people found out Jesus resurrected from the dead, that would confirm that He was indeed God. It's the same today, if people just stop at the cross and forget or miss out the fact that He rose again, then it is nothing more than a moving story of a kind, wise man that helped people. But Jesus was not just a man, He was and is God and the resurrection proves His deity!!!

Do you see why the resurrection is so important? We must never leave it out of the Easter story or dumb it down. It MUST be the central focus of all that we celebrate and all that we share with the world.

Because He rose, we can rise. Because He rose we can be free from sin, sickness, poverty and the most devastating of all, separation from God. God redeemed us from the curse of the law and from an eternity of separation with Him.

If that is not something to celebrate I don't know what is! We should be shouting this from the rooftops!

This is truly too good to be true news! As horrible as that pain was for Jesus, He did it knowing the victory He was obtaining for us.

We pray this Easter, no matter what you are facing, that you embrace the above truth and choose to focus on the incredible gift of Easter and what Jesus did for you. He would have done it even if you were the only person on the earth.

If you would like to read more about the Easter story in the bible go to Matthew 26,27,28; Mark 14,15,16; Luke 22,23,24; John 18,19,20,21.

We love you.

Happy Easter

Love always - Oceans