Brian Lucas
Easter is just about here.
Recently I was asked by someone in our church why we would use the cross to worship or remember Jesus. Seems like it’s a bit morbid. And if all that happened was that our favorite holy man and teacher in history was killed on one, it would be very morbid to remember him with that symbol. But that’s not what happened.
The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to a church in Corinth saying: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18, NIV). How is this possible? Well, way back at the beginning, the first people messed up the relationship with God (Genesis 1-3). And God promised that He would fix it.
Fifteen-hundred years before the first Easter, God established an event called Passover. The final of ten plagues to convince Egypt to release Israel, who had been held in slavery for 450 years: the death of all the firstborn. Except those who trusted in God would take a perfect lamb, and offer it as a sacrifice. Some of the blood was to be painted over the door of the house, then the meal cooked and eaten. Every door with lamb’s blood over it did not suffer, but Death passed over that house (Passover). This last event caused the release of Israel from slavery.
When Jesus walked the earth, He didn’t come just to be a good teacher or a great example of a holy man, He was God in flesh. But even more, as John the Baptizer (a prophet) declared: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Jesus was (and is) the ultimate perfect sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world by His death on the cross. He spoke of this when asked about his teaching: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (John 3:14-15).
So, focusing on the cross is not a weirdly morbid fascination with death, but a celebration of the way that God restores us through Christ’s sacrifice. We believe that Jesus died for our sin, and that He rose on the third day to give us eternal life. As Paul wrote in another of his letters: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:1-3).
Easter is the remembrance and celebration of the cross and the resurrection. Because Jesus died, we who believe in Him have peace with God, and eternal life. And that is worth celebrating.
Brian Lucas is co-lead pastor at Pax Christian Church.