April Pastor’s Ponderings
06 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
Pastor’s Ponderings…
I like bunnies as much as the next person. You probably like bunnies, too. But this is not a time to be confused about the reason for Easter. It’s not about rabbits distributing eggs, oohing and aahing over cute baby chicks or remembering Judy Garland in an outlandish hat for the “Easter Parade.”
On Easter we celebrate the historical fact that nearly 2,000 years ago a man died, lay in a grave for three days and then got up and began walking around again, telling people that God loves them. It sounds like an episode of Twilight Zone, but it is even better than great SciFi. This is real.
I remember reading the story of a medieval Christian and learned man who fell upon hard times near the end of his life. Old and extremely sick, he was rescued from the street and brought to a hospital. Believing the man was unconscious, one doctor spoke to another, saying “What shall we do with this poor, worthless creature?” Upon hearing this, the man raised up from his bed, and cried out, “Do not call that man worthless for whom Christ died!” If the crucifixion and resurrection are ever to truly take hold in our life and become more than historical events, we must appreciate this point.
We spend a huge chunk of our lives pursuing acceptance and approval from various sources: our parents, our spouses, our children, our friends, our bosses. We wrestle with self-esteem and self-worth. We spend our lives seeking to establish our own unique significance. The nature of the quest is that we can’t quite do it alone.
It is rare that we fully confess, even to ourselves, how desperately we crave this affirmation and approval, but God sees it, and knows its origin and its solution. Our worth in God’s eyes is rooted in the fact that Jesus Christ was willing to die for each one of us – that He came specifically to fill the voids in your heart and mine.
For Good Friday and Easter to change us, we must allow our quest for significance to lead us to Calvary and a personal encounter with Christ. For it is only at the foot of the cross that we can truly comprehend the depth of God’s love and acceptance. It is only then that we can look at the mirror each morning, and see the one for whom Christ died.
-With help from Rich M., Easter in Cyberspace
