Great time to be thinking about Easter, huh?
I know most people are feeling the excitement of Fall in the air, and even dreaming about the upcoming celebrations of Thanksgiving and maybe even Christmas.
But, for some reason, I am day dreaming about Easter.
Easter is my favorite. It's the most meaningful time of year to me.
As a follower of Jesus, Easter is downright crazy.
I mean, it's one thing to believe in the whole Christmas story and about Jesus being born to a virgin and being the incarnation, human form of the God of the universe. Yah, that's weird.
But, Easter?
To believe that Jesus died and then after a couple of days he rose from the dead and was physically alive again, but he kinda looked different because some people close to him didn't even recognize him? And then to believe that event has profound meaning to my life right now, 2000 years later? That is beyond weird. That's crazy.
But, that's what Christians believe! That's what I believe!
And it is so weird and supernatural and mystical.
And, although I'm not planning to spend time defending why I would believe such a crazy thing actually happened, I do believe there is sufficient evidence that it did.
Anyways, for so many years of my life I've heard the explanation of Jesus' death framed as him being a sacrificial lamb, dying in my place, because God needs a blood sacrifice to atone for sins. So, Jesus steps in and is that sacrifice for me.
But, that inevitably leads me to view God as a bloodthirsty, vengeful entity. And, it leads me to view myself as a sinful being unworthy of God's love but lucky because Jesus was worthy.
So, I'm left with a really crummy impression of God's character and my own.
But, in recent years, I've heard the death and resurrection of Jesus described differently. And I'm left with a beautiful, flawless, perfect, all-loving impression of the triune God. And I'm left feeling worthy, loved, victorious, fearless, and filled with hope and purpose.
Hmmmm
But because I've heard the substitutionary atonement theory repeatedly for over 40 years, I sometimes struggle to articulate what I REALLY believe the resurrection is all about.
Victory over evil.
Victory over death.
A model of dying and rising - which is a continual part of my faith journey. Die to self, rise up into the version of me that God created. Continually.
From Cynthia Bourgeault's reflections: "Christianity has tended to view the resurrection as Jesus' triumph over physical death...but...it's meaning lies in something far deeper than merely the resurrection of a corpse. Jesus' real purpose in this sacrifice was to wager his own life against his core conviction that love is stronger than death, and that laying down self, which is the essence of this love, leads not to death, but to life..."
She goes on about how this gives us an archetype for all of our personal experiences of dying and rising "reminding us that it is not only possible but imperative to fall through fear, into love because that is the only way we will ever truly know what it means to be alive".
This is SO MUCH MORE BEAUTIFUL, helpful, inspiring, transformative and encouraging to contemplate than the idea of my being awful and unworthy of love until Jesus is brutally murdered in my place.
I don't believe I am unworthy or that I was unworthy. Sure, I'm a sinner. Because I am human and have to continually die to self and seek to be reborn as God's creation. Always allowing His spirit to refine me, regenerate me, remind me. His spirit reminds me that I was created by Him and he cherishes that creation. He didn't create me as an unworthy sinner who he couldn't bear to look at because I'm too disgusting for His pure eyes - so he needed a mutilated Jesus to step between us so he could bear looking directly at my awful self.
What the?
That's crazy!
So, today I'm thinking about the end of my favorite season and the coming of the cooler months.
And I'm thinking about Easter and the resurrection and the life of Jesus.
I'm thinking about the infinite beauty of the love of God and the stark contrast between that light and the darkness that is sin and evil.
I truly do realize how weird it is to believe these things actually happened. And it's weird to believe these events continue to have profound affect on humanity in this present moment 2000 years later.
I could say so much more.
Jesus was the ultimate scapegoat. In perfect love, he took all of the hate, blame, rage, fear, and accusations...and he accepted it all with grace and mercy and forgiveness. He let humanity pile all of our disgusting sins on him and He carried that weight to his death. His murder. He then had victory over death and showed that all of that sin does not win.
In the ultimate display of victory, he demonstrated that love wins.
God didn't kill Jesus to quench his thirst for a blood sacrifice. We killed Jesus. Evil killed Jesus. And we piled all of our sin on Him. And he took it all. And he showed us that evil doesn't win. It can't win. Because God is love and love is all powerful.
I love Easter.
