As we begin the month of April, end the season of
Lent, celebrate Easter, and begin the season of resurrection, I hope that we
will take the time to remember. During
Lent we were often asked to remember. We
were asked to remember our sin, to remember Jesus trial, conviction, brutal
beatings, crucifixion and ultimate humiliation and death on the cross. But this is different. As we celebrate spring and begin the season
of resurrection, our focus changes. Now,
instead of recalling the darkness, we change our focus to the light. All these things are good news. We remember that Jesus said he would be “lifted up” just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the desert. We remember that Jesus’
death on the cross was the act that saved us, it was his sacrifice, his
acceptance of a punishment that rightly belonged to us. But as amazing has his sacrifice was (and
is), the story would be horribly tragic if it had ended there and that is why
our focus now shifts.
Now, we shift our attention to the end of the story,
or more correctly, to the beginning of the new story. As we celebrate the coming of spring we
remember that the trees that once looked dead burst forth in new growth. We remember that the spring flowers that died
last summer rise again from the earth and display their beauty to the
world. In the same way, we remember that
Easter is a story of a new beginning. Jesus
took our punishment for sin when he died on the cross, but in three days what
was once dead burst from the earth, rose again, and returned to life. It was through the resurrection that we know
that God approved of Christ’s sacrifice.
It was through the resurrection that we know that Jesus is the Son of
God, the second person of the Trinity, and it is through the resurrection that
we know that a new age has begun. At the
moment of resurrection we discover the end of the Passion story and the end of
the Gospels but we also find the beginning of God’s new covenant with his
people. It is at the moment of resurrection
that we begin to anticipate the future work of the body of Christ and the
creation of the church as we know it.
Lent and Easter, the Passion and the Resurrection,
are two sides of one whole. During Lent
we remember what Christ has done for us.
At Easter we celebrate his victory over death and our invitation to
eternal life but there is more to it than that.
Easter is the end of the Gospel story and near the end of Jesus’ time on
earth but it is just the beginning of our
story, the story of the church and our
mission. Easter begins a turning point of
history when Christ prepares his followers to take up his cross, to assume his mission on earth as their mission and to truly become the hands
and feet of Jesus. The celebration of
Easter is not only a call to remember and not only a call to follow Jesus Christ, but it is a
call to be Jesus to the
world.
On Easter Sunday we will shout, “He is risen!” but
as we do so we will hear the risen Christ calling to us to take up his cross
and to carry on with the work that he began.
Will we answer his call?
Will we be
Jesus to the world around us?
.
