Apr. 12, 2009 - Easter Sunday
Amazing love, how can it be, that you my King would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true, and it’s my joy to honour You…
In all I do, I honour You.
As Easter approached last week I thought much about the importance of the weekend. It is the single more important holiday on the Christian calendar, yet we, even in the church, seem to make very little of it. We’re glad for the four-day weekend. We enjoy the secular tradition of chocolate. And we give lip service to the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. And we mean it. We really do. Or do we?
Christmas is the time when church and community alike pull out all the stops. Such pageantry is not seen at any other time of year. And we should celebrate! Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our King! It is good that we make so much of this special time of year.
But Christmas would mean nothing if it were not for Easter. Easter, or rather, what we have set that spring weekend aside to remember, is the very reason Christ came. It was the focus all along, and while many Christmas services make reference to the reason He was born, by the time Easter rolls around we seem to have forgotten that THIS is the very heart of Christianity. For without it we could not call ourselves Christians at all.
I see the community around me “honouring” Good Friday by going to holiday hours, but most businesses remain open. Not knowing the Christ we celebrate on this weekend, this is not surprising. But in the church we ought to set the example, showing the world that this is bigger than Christmas. It is the very hope within us. The celebration of Christ’s resurrection should be surpassed by none. As wonderful as His birth was, and as appropriate as it is to celebrate it, everyone is born. His death is well remembered as in it He paid the price for all of us so that we might live forever with Him. But when He rose from the dead, He did what none other before or after Him has done. He conquered death. His resurrection proves that He is the very God He said He was. It is by His resurrection that we can have life everlasting. It is because of this single event that we have hope. It is because of this event that we follow Him and call ourselves by His name: Christian. The celebration that we will share in when we meet in Glory is something we can at this time not even imagine. And that celebration will be because He lives. Why do we not now celebrate that He lives?
But as I thought about how we should give this day more attention, I wondered what difference does this make in my life?
That was a hard question.
There are things I do and don’t do that people might say define me as a Christian, but that’s really not what it’s about. I truly believe all that I wrote above. Do I live like I believe it? What should that look like?
This morning we sang the song quoted above and I clung to the last line: In all I do I honour You. That’s what it should look like. In all I do I must honour Him, the One who died and rose again so that I might have life. Amazing love. There is none like it. On Good Friday I am speechless because of all He suffered on my behalf. On Easter Sunday I am both speechless and full of praise because of what this means. How can it be that my King should die for me? Yet He did. Amazing love. May all I do honour You. Today on Easter Sunday, and every day.
