Jesus was either a crazy lunatic, a liar and a manipulator…or exactly who he said he was.
Easter is a really happy, sweet, pastel-y holiday. But do you think maybe somewhere along the way we lost the point? That maybe there is more than just new dresses and a basket of candy at the end of the day?
Easter is a holiday that began with a cross. The cross came about because of our sin.
And there is nothing pastel-y or sweet about our sin.
Don’t get me wrong - the cross gives us joy and something to celebrate. That the God of all eternity would give a sacrifice so great because he loves us, to present to us a mighty picture of his grace and forgiveness. I can’t think of any human being that would go to such lengths to show someone how much they love them. And the incredible thing about the cross is that it doesn’t require anything of us. And we can’t redeem ourselves, we can’t pay back that sacrifice. Nothing we ever do will make up for what we have done, what we are doing, and what we are going to do.
Someone told me that giving our sins and our burdens to God is a cop-out. It shows our laziness. I disagree. If God didn’t want to carry that weight with us, he would have never sent Jesus. We wouldn’t have been justified through the cross, we wouldn’t experience the grace that we do. But God knew we were going to mess it up. That’s why we have the cross.
Our sins, our burdens, our mistakes - they are too great for us to carry alone. And as easy as it may appear at first, it slowly eats away at a person. It wears them down. That’s why we have the cross. So that we may experience freedom. Love. Grace. So that we may live our lives, secure in the knowledge that through God we are made perfect. We no longer need to dwell on our sins, we do not need to wallow in pity. The cross - God’s love - they washed everything away. It’s gone.
The Cross cannot be repaid by us. Not through works or morality or deeds.
We live in a world that promotes independence and doing things on your own. But we follow a God that doesn’t make that an option.
Happy Easter.