Still pondering the meaning of Easter

I don’t know about you, but I am still thinking about Easter. Not the Easter where we had lots of people in church or family at home with a muddy, sloppy Easter egg hunt. There are still six eggs left in the woods at home. Perhaps I shall find them in the fall when I go hunting for wood to cut and burn. Not the Easter where retailers still get good dividends on families shopping for Easter clothes, dresses, hats, purses, suits, shoes, baskets and chocolate. Not that Easter.

I am still thinking about the Easter that is still resonating, where Jesus of Nazareth was falsely accused and arrested, beaten to within a breath of his life, then crucified and died on what we as a church still cling to as “the old rugged cross.” Then sometime between sundown Saturday evening and sunrise Sunday morning, the ending of the Jewish Sabbath, Jesus rose from the dead.

It’s not the actuality of the act itself. In hospitals and first-responder scenes across the world, we see people who have died and have been brought back to life. Performing CPR or using an AED machine to shock people back to life happens on a daily basis. However, the very act of Jesus returning from the dead, into the same body that had just been through a Roman beating before being crucified and then gave up his spirit, is staggering to consider.

If we believe that He could do it simply because He is God, and He is, and He could, then I believe that if He is God, He could do that. End of story. Yet my pondering does not go there. I believe He is God, so yes, He could do that. But my pondering is more along the lines of not how, but why.

Yes, yes, of course He loves us. How many Psalms and verses tell us so? From the very beginning in the Garden, God developed more than just a relationship with people. We are more than just subjects or slaves. We have this kinship. And because we have a kinship that is thicker than blood or water, God sent His Son to live among us, and not establish a permanent home, but rather “tabernacle” among us. Then, because He cares for you and me, He provided His Son as the sacrifice for all sins. Hebrews 9:22 reminds us that without a sacrifice there can be no remission for sin.

But this was not just a normal sacrifice. This was God’s Son. Because we were more to Him than just buddies or pals, or friends or acquaintances, we meant more to Him than just a face-value friendship. No, this was the epitome of loving your neighbor, loving your father and mother, loving each other. This was love undeniable.

Easter Sunday was proof that love undeniable exists — and still does today. Words cannot express that kind of love or sacrifice. Maybe that’s why I am still pondering them today. Considering how things are going in the world today, as a Christian believer, maybe you should as well.

Dr. Chuck Wilson is pastor of Carrollton Bible Chapel.