April 6, 2009
The Christ of Easter, Hope for the World
by Donald G. Mashburn
Easter is a sobering time that helps us to focus on life as it is – often gritty and grimy, too often bloody and violent – and on the renewal of a better life for the future, a life we pray will bring us hope in a increasingly hopeless world.
This Easter season’s images are very sobering, to be sure, for soldiers in the ongoing fight against international terrorism are still putting their lives on the line daily. Too many will give the ultimate sacrifice in the cause for freedom, along with all the dreams they had for their futures with loved ones who mourn them.
These will pay that immeasurable price in far-off places with names like Afghanistan and Iraq, places most Americans will never visit, and an embarrassing number cannot locate on a map.
Here in America, the economy that went all wobbly got wobblier, and now threatens to plunge in to the bottomless abyss of hopelessness brought on by panicky, helpless government officials trying to control by government what neither they nor government have the know-how to control.
Arriving amidst all this haplessness and hopelessness, Easter this year should be welcomed as a universal day of hope – a day that tells us that the world may not be well, but that all’s well for those who believe in the Christ of Easter.
Knowing what Easter is about helps us to cope with the global upheaval brought on by crazed Islamic extremists, the murderous predators of Africa, and other agents of evil in a sickened world. If we can focus on the Hope – and the reason and meaning – of Easter, instead of letting the cruelties of the world shake our faith in the future, Easter restores us like a divine tonic for the battered spirit.
For some, “Easter Break” is a time of self-indulgence. For Christians, Easter is the story of a life given to save others. It’s a day of thanksgiving, and a day of remembrance for when they shed the rags of the world and donned the spotless robe of the Redeemed.
One would think that, worldwide, people would welcome the redemption message of Easter. But, sadly, anti-Christian forces are trying to tarnish the holiness of Easter with political and social agendas to remove Christ from Easter, just as they have tried to remove “Christ” from Christmas.
Christianity’s enemies want to get the Christ of Easter out of the public view and mind. They flood us with commercial messages that try to reduce God to myth, and Christ to “right wing” religious fanatic. But God and Christ are real. And Easter is much more than bunny rabbits and new spring outfits for a once-a-year church service and joining in singing “He Arose.”
The Easter Story is about an agonizing death, on a cross, of a perfect, sinless man, followed by the earth-shaking event of that Man, three days later, walking out of the grave. This man, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, being both divine and man, could have avoided dying, and had the power to destroy all those who conspired to have Him crucified.
But the glory of Easter is that Jesus stayed on the cross. He chose to do His Father’s will, to pay our sin debt so that we might be made righteous in the eyes of a holy God. Jesus loved us enough to suffer the humiliation, agony, and death of the cross, so that through His resurrection we might know, and through faith believe, that He is indeed the Son of God.
Easter will pass hardly noticed by many. “Easter egg” hunts will be staged, and some commercialized parades will be held. But notice how many in the media work to avoid mentioning Christ and His resurrection.
The world’s spiritual condition, generally, is terrible. The feeble U.N. Security Council has shown repeatedly just how inept, spineless and corrupt it really is. In Iraq, Darfur, Zimbabwe – anywhere evil men wreak violence on countless poor and helpless victims – the U.N. has shown it can’t be an effective international agency for justice and freedom.
But even amidst this widespread strife, Christians, some of whom are affected by the strife, find in Easter the blessed assurance of a changed life and of life eternal with the Savior of the world who gave Himself for them.
One salient fact makes Easter special for all mankind: On that first Easter morning, the tomb was empty!
Believers sing confidently, “He arose, He arose, Hallelujah, Christ arose!” To join that chorus is easy: Believe in the resurrected Christ, and receive as a free gift “the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe” (Romans 3:22 NKJV)
With Christ as Lord of our life, we know the world can’t hurt us. And there’s no room for war worries, “winter willies” or “spring blues.” And the world, if only it would embrace Him, would find hope where hope has been absent. Easter is a glorious time of hope and renewal for all who believe that Jesus “came to save that which was lost.
And because those who believe in and accept Him will spend eternity with Him, He is the hope for a hopeless world.