Easter Reflections

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Welcome back!  I hope you all had a wonderful Easter with your families.  For the Loudoun/Fairfax crowd, I hope you also enjoyed your Spring Break.  If you’re on break this week, I hope you’re able to take time to relax and enjoy your families.  I spent the season of Lent this year going through the She Reads Truth Lent Bible study which went through all of Exodus and ended last week by going through Jesus’ last week on earth.  God taught me so much throughout this study, which I am still processing in part, but as we are just coming off of this season, I wanted to at least share some reflections from this past week.  For those of us who have grown up in church, I feel sometimes that fight for fresh eyes sometimes in reading the stories that we grew up hearing.  Here are a few of the ways that the Easter story hit me anew this year:
1)      Jesus endured humiliation for me (Mark 14:65, 15:29-32) so that I can be free from shame.  Am I always living this way?  Or are there things that I need to release to God so that I can truly live in freedom? 
2)      Jesus endured abandonment for me so that I never have to be alone.  First from His friends in the garden (Mark 14:37-42), then from His own Father on the cross (Mark 15:34).  So at times when I am feeling lonely, I can trust that Jesus knows exactly how I feel and that He is always with me.  Do I truly believe His Word when He says that? (Matthew 28:20, Joshua 1:9, Hebrews 13:5 just to name a few)
3)      Jesus endured God’s wrath for me even though He did nothing wrong. Ever. I am the one who sins over and over and yet 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Because of this, our sin is wiped clean, and we stand justified before the Father, able to have a relationship with Him.  Jesus tore down that separation that existed between us and the Father (Mark 15:37-39). 
4)      Jesus endured the painful death I deserve and conquered it so that I can live with the hope that death is not the end (John 3:16, 16:33).  
I knew Easter was a few days ago, but I hope these truths encourage you as well.  By His wounds we are healed and now we celebrate that He is risen, indeed!

Comments

  1. sallyApril 3, 2018 at 1:29 PM

    Thank you for your well written interpretation. My Pastor at Crosscurrent impressed many of those same messages to us on Easter Sunday! It was great to cook dinner for my family on Easter and spend time with them Michael looks so tired from his government job and this tax season. I can’t wait until it’s over and he can rest!

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