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4-8-07: Not Your Ordinary Morning |
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Dawn on Easter signaled a change of everything, but nobody knew it yet. As the message started to spread – Jesus was not dead, he had risen! – there had to be a major clash of belief and unbelief. This was a lot to take in.
To some it had to seem ridiculous; to others, like a fantasy. But a few came to believe and shared it and more and more people saw him and shared that. Here we come to two points: first, this message is not meant to be easy to believe – it is so far out of the realm of the ordinary: it is the all-time miracle. Second, God has gone to extraordinary lengths to express to us His love and intent to bring us back into a right place with Him. This unlikely story is the revelation of God reaching out to redeem us!
First, God had to clean up the differences between God and us. God’s standards and ours are too different. Somebody had to pay the price, be the ransom. So God paid the price – the unbridgeable chasm between God and us was bridged by God’s supreme sacrifice. None of us was good enough, pure enough to make it okay – God became one of us to make us acceptable. But now we’re much more, we’re welcomed. Jesus became the ransom for our lives – God’s working hard to get us right with Him.
God had made a covenant with Abraham 2000 years earlier, now he made one with us, a blood covenant which sealed God’s love for us. God made a new love contract available to every person based on His desire to have fellowship with us. Again, God’s really trying to make a point, loving us more than we can fathom, God wants us to know it, He had to show it.
Jesus broke the stranglehold of sin and death. We’re too caught up in our own selves to see beyond ourselves – sin has us, we can’t live up to God’s standards. And none of us escapes the penalty for the original sin, everybody dies. Forever, death had robbed life of its ultimate meaning – relationship with God and others. That sentence ended on this morning. Death is no longer the life-killing enemy – now death is the passage to completeness. As Jesus died and lives, so shall we.
People had always speculated about life after this life – what would it be? No one could know, nobody ever came back to talk about it – till this morning. Now we know. Jesus showed us, for all time, that he is the pathway to eternal life with God. And eternal harmony. Jesus turned the order of human experience upside down. In God’s order, justice comes in the form of mercy, power comes in the form of love, relationship is more important than doctrine, personal merit is based on character, and God does not favor persons for any factor other than their integrity with Him and others. We can only thank God for His love and Jesus for his sacrifice.
On this Easter 2007, I give real thanks for each of you – unique, gifted, struggling, talented and blessed more than you even know. What is the Easter message this morning? To me it’s this: God has really strived intently to make it known to you that you are loved and desired. God really wants you to know that He wants to be in genuine relationship with you, just as you are, today. What more does He have to do to make the point? Look, listen, pay attention. On the cover page of the eternal story, you’ll find the dedication: it is dedicated to you. Check it out. Amen. |
