Many of us have been reeling from the circumstances we have found ourselves in over the last few weeks and months. With the uncertainties and fears we face as Americans daily, the ground on which we stand seems to be shifting underneath our feet. Like most of you, the stresses and storms of life have seemingly taken a toll on me in recent days. As we come to this beautiful day we call Easter, it somehow seems different this year. Something has changed in the psyche of our culture. On the other hand, the approach of this holy day during this season of unrest can lead us to the point where we are now ready to fully comprehend the depth of God’s love in our lives as He so eloquently portrayed with the blood of His only Son at Golgotha.
The Heavy Grief of Jesus' Death
If we truly understand the reality of this season, we will not be able to view this great spectacle of Easter in the same way. Maybe for the first time in many of our lives, we will understand that to see the outcome of the cross, we must first allow the dark shadows of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to steal the hope, purpose, and meaning from our lives. Perhaps we need to experience in our own lives that gray dawn of the awful middle day of Saturday when the Son of God, reduced to a human corpse, lay silent in the grave before we can know the joy of the resurrection. If possible, we need to feel the total, all-consuming despair of those gut-wrenching moments that could find no resolution that surely pervaded the hearts and souls of Jesus’ followers. To every eye, Jesus was unequivocally dead and buried. Even though Jesus had told the disciples of His coming death and resurrection, the mists of that interminable middle day blurred the eyes of Jesus’ followers with grief. They gripped their hearts with the painful consciousness that they had given Him their allegiance in vain.
The Purpose of the Cross
But it was at this precise lowest point in the history of humanity that God chose to write a victorious epilogue to Friday’s defeat and brought to us that first glorious Easter morning when the stone was rolled away, and this earth once again felt the footsteps of the very one who had been its creator. Don’t you see, the cross was God’s finest effort to demonstrate His love, but do you not also see that God would have never stopped to consider the cross without the reality of the coming resurrection? Conversely, without the majesty and sacrifice of the cross, we would have also quickly forgotten the significance of the resurrection. In God’s economy, the two cannot be separated, and together, they form the great imperative of our faith and inexplicably draw us into the presence of our Savior and Lord in humble worship and praise.
Understanding the Gap between Good Friday and Easter Sunday
So, as we thoughtfully and prayerfully consider the dawn of another Easter morning today, we find ourselves again in the middle of the day. Just like the disciples of old, we are caught between two great historical moments. Though Jesus had told them what was to happen, they were confounded after the crucifixion and just before the resurrection of the one whom they acknowledged was the Messiah. The resurrection would be real tomorrow, and a new paradigm of belief would dawn on them, but they would not leave their disillusionment of Saturday long enough to look for it. Like the disciples of old, we find ourselves in a similar predicament, hanging like chaff in the wind between the historical event of the first Easter and the longed-for return of our King.
Easter's Relevance in Our Modern Lives
In celebrating Easter with all the depth of its meaning, we proclaim that we, as Christians, believe that our Savior was crucified, buried, and rose again. But do we believe, or is it some weak-minded lip service to a long-told fable? Did you know that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ are two of the most documented events in the world? There is a greater certainty that these two high and holy events occurred than most of the other history we take for granted as being true. The historicity of our faith is sure, but we find ourselves in the malaise of our misguided expectations and false hope in a fading human culture. So, where does that leave us in this middle day? Listen to what Jesus says in Luke’s rendition of this particular event: “Now when these things begin to take place, then look up and raise your heads, because the time of your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).
If the crucifixion and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior are real in your life today, lift your head because your salvation is at hand! Our victory is assured regardless of the small, strained viewpoint of our particular circumstances. The only reason the crucifixion came to be was that there were no other alternatives. If there had been another option, there would have been no Calvary. Jesus endured the realities of that awful ugliness of the cross, not so that we might have even a better means of salvation but solely because there was simply no other way. If there had been, God the Father would have summoned all of the angelic legions of heaven who were eagerly waiting in rapt attention, yearning to respond. But in all of its ugliness, the cross of Calvary shouts in the most emphatic terms possible that Jesus Christ is the only way, the only truth, and the only life!
We know on this side of these events that Jesus was a willing participant, don’t we? Because Jesus chose not to bypass the Cross, His followers can live in the freedom of forgiveness today. In Christ, we have the promise of a common inheritance with Him in the fullness of time when everything is put in subjection beneath His feet. This is a faith that is strong enough to live by and it is strong enough to die by. As the old hymn so eloquently states: “Jesus paid it all, and it is all to Him I owe — Sin had left a crimson stain — He washed it white as snow!”
So, as we approach this Easter season, even in the midst of confusion and concern, we at Southern Evangelical Seminary will be casting a glance toward the Eastern sky and raising our heads because we know the time of our redemption is drawing near. To God be the Glory for the Things He has done! Even so, come Lord Jesus!
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