Easter: The Time of Renewal and New Life!

Today is celebrated throughout the world as Good Friday, traditionally commemorating the day that Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross of Calvary. There are some 2,000 years of fact, fiction, myth, truth, and tradition, wrapped up in the Easter season. We owe a debt of deep gratitude to a lot of people for spending their entire lives in the saintly work of preservation, lives lived in the shadow of the Cross, under direction of the Holy Spirit, writing, copying, and meticulously checking, then re-checking and cross-checking to see that they had accurately brought forward the greatest story ever told; the story of our redemption by the Blood of Christ Jesus.

On that distant Good Friday, in the murky past 2,000 years ago, there were three crosses - execution devices - raised on the hillside outside the city of Jerusalem, the capital of a restless, unruly Roman province known as Judea. Governing this province was at the time the responsibility of one Pontius Pilate, a no-nonsense governor who was probably tired of the unrest in this dusty little town so far removed from Rome. Pilate, by all accounts, tried to be fair, but the Roman idea of "fair" was quite different from our modern ideas on the subject. This time, the quite unwelcome cry of "sedition" had been raised, and Pilate did not want to get a reputation for allowing such a thing on his watch. Thus it was, that after trial, this Jesus of Nazareth was to hang with two thieves who had already been convicted and sentenced to death.

Jesus, we are told, was raised in the middle, with one thief on each side of him. I don't believe this was just a coincidence, as God was in control of things on that dark day, as He is in control of things on these dark days in which Terri Schiavo's life hangs in the balance in March of 2005. I mention this case that has so transfixed the people of the world at this Easter season, because of some of the inescapeable parallels, some of the things that have caused so many to think perhaps more deeply this year than in previous years, regarding redemption and our own personal condition of sinfulness before God. Jesus was truly the "man in the middle" on that day, between one thief who would ultimately reject him, and another who found sweet forgiveness for his sins and the reward of the faithful when he submitted his life and soul to Jesus, Lord of all.

Today, as then, Jesus is the man in the middle. He is presented to us by the Bible, God's Word, as the remedy for our own personal sinfulness. The Bible tells us, and we each know this in our hearts, that all have sinned, and that thus, we have fallen short of experiencing God's glory. I know that I have sinned. My heart tells me so. My spirit is convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit of God, and it then becomes my responsibility to ask God for forgiveness. And the Word of God tells me that when I ask, God is faithful to forgive those sins, and place my heart in a right relationship with Him. How wonderful to know that position, to know that the Creator of all things, as unknowable and beyond our comprehension as He is, has chosen to let me - and you - approach Him, and that He knows me personally, and loves me to the extent that He gave His son on the cross to pay the debt of my sins.

How much attention has been paid to the man on the one side of Jesus that day, who rejected Him? Maybe not enough. God allowed him to be placed in this story for a reason: to warn us of the consequences of rejecting Christ. If you look at Luke's gospel, chapter 23, you find this story in detail. The rejecting thief had only one thing on his mind that day - he wanted someone to free him and allow him to go about his life as he had done, without any change to the good, and with no thought for others. "So you're the messiah, are you?", the man scoffed, "prove it by saving yourself - and us too, while you're at it." No sign here of regret for his life of crime, no sign of any desire to change. Just the desire to save his own skin! Of course this man did not believe that Jesus was the son of God, he had no desire to know Him or His kingdom, all he wanted was to continue his own existence. In matter of fact, he was figuratively spitting into the face of God as he hung there dying. Not unlike some other evil men of whom I have heard, who in their throes of death, literally cursed God. I know for sure that I would not like to be there on judgement day to hear the sentence of eternal death pronounced for such men.

Jesus that day hung between two mindsets just as surely as he hung between two men. One mindset is that which rejects him as the saviour, and the mantra of that mindset is that "all roads lead to heaven." The other mindset is reflected in the truth that the Bible tells us, that there is no other name given among men by which we may be saved. In this day when the spiritual is relegated to a minor and diminishing part of our national life, we need to think more about where our mindset is. Do we have a saving faith in Christ, or do we just have the laissez-faire attitude that we'll just see what happens when we die?

Then there was the man on the other side. This man acknowledged his sins, by saying that Jesus was there by no accord of his own, but that he and his accomplice were there justly, dying for their own deeds. Without ceremony, the man called out to Jesus, for salvation. "Remember me when you come into your kingdom," he cried. Jesus' response to him was immediate and complete, "Today you will be with me in paradise," He said, forgiving the man of his sins and imparting to him eternal life in the presence of God. What a great example for us today! We should fall at Jesus' feet, acknowledge our sinfulness before God, and ask for this great and wonderful salvation! From the example here in the Bible, we can see that God forgives immediately, that He welcomes us into His presence, which in itself is paradise. We don't have to beg, plead, cut ourselves, do penance, or in any way provide for our salvation. Just trust in Him, and the deal is done. Jesus is all we need, just having faith in Him is the answer to our need for salvation.

What happened on the first day of the following week, Easter Sunday as we celebrate it, is the subject of my next post. Easter is the most marvelous day of celebration the world has ever known: it is a day commemorating the resurrection of our Lord. Jesus got up, left the tomb empty, and took up His life, just as He laid it down. That is in itself the seal of approval on His sacrifice for our sins. God, in His way, showed His approval of Jesus' sinless life, remarkable death, and His power of salvation, by his resurrection. We will explore that on Sunday

Happy Easter!

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