Easter—The Invitation
By Rhonda Frye
For the last forty days, Christians worldwide have observed the Lenten season. We fasted, prayed, and identified with the suffering of our Lord. By examining sacred scripture, believers have tracked the last few miles leading up to the Cross. We engaged in Palm Sunday celebrations, participated in the Lord’s Supper, lingered in the sobering realities of Good Friday, and waited patiently through Silent Saturday. And now the day is here. Resurrection Sunday! Do we really understand it?
People from across the globe will pack out churches, singing their praise, perhaps waving banners. What a celebration. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Easter is the most incredible come-back story of all time. Christ defeated sin and death, securing an unprecedented victory—life over death. Jesus—experienced a full-body resurrection and lives forever. And because of this, those who place their faith and trust in His work of the Cross will live forever too. That’s the Gospel! Or is it? Is there more?
The Gospel is simple but profound. It is easy enough for a child to understand, but there are layers to discover. The longer I walk with the Lord, I see I’ve had a shallow understanding of the Gospel. To me, Easter used to be about Jesus paying for all my sin. I believed He died and was raised, and since I believed that, I became the proud owner of immortality. I thought salvation was about being forgiven so I could claim eternal life upon my death and live happily ever after. However, Easter is just as much about Love over Hate as Life over Death.
Jesus died on the Cross to address the sin problem, but the very essence and nature of sin is a distortion of love. Our love problem wrecks our relationship with God and each other. The salvation plan was about Jesus laying aside everything but Holy Love to bring reconciliation. He came to restore peace. There can be no peace without equality and justice for all—as in all people. What good news! “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of the sight to the blind to let the oppressed go free” (Luke 4:18).
Jesus made way for this reconciliation through sacrificial love. He sacrificed His very own rights, and He had them—that’s because He is God! So does that mean He put the breath into the lungs of those who used it to shout, “Crucify Him?” Was the hand that wrote the law onto the stone tablets stretched out and nailed to the Cross? Did the religious leaders force Him out of the very religion He instituted? Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus didn’t come into existence on December 25, for sure.
Jesus, fully God, fully man, chose sacrificial love as the redemption and reconciliation plan. Jesus rode into town on Palm Sunday with nothing but love in His heart and peace on His lips. Before the week was over, it got Him killed. He allowed it, although He had access to legions of warring angels to come to His defense. He submitted to a wrongful death situation. He succumbed from injuries sustained in a hate crime. He surrendered to the enemy peacefully. He thought we were worth it. That’s love.
Jesus accomplished the mission. He was successful. The Truth rose. Truth walked out of the grave. Love won. Love was enough. And here we are on Easter Sunday, gasping at the wonder of it all. We’re wide-eyed and teary-eyed. We’re shouting, “Thank you, Jesus!”
If we could see Jesus, He would open His arms and receive our gratitude and praise. He would say, “You’re so welcome. You were worth it.” However, if we listen closely, we would hear Him say….. “Your turn!”
Calvary is much more than a historical landmark, and the Cross is more than an emblem to admire. So often, we look upon the Cross with adoration, but Jesus wants more than for us to cherish it. The Cross is an open invitation to become one with Christ. It is an appeal to come and do likewise! Death to our desires. Death to our ways. The empty tomb is more than a futuristic hope of being raised to live happily ever after. Real living for now follows death to self. There is abundant life in cruciform living!
It is a beautiful thing to reflect on the single most crucial event that has ever happened in the history of the world—the Resurrection. However, it is essential to move from admiration to participation. That is living the Gospel! And we do this by sacrificial love, just like Jesus did.
What is Easter about? It’s a big story. It has lots of layers, but—it’s an invitation to be one with Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:19b-20). And now it’s our turn to give our lives for the good of others.
