I wrote this last night and shared it on the church's page. Thought I would share this here as well.
Happy Easter, Jesus lives.
A thought on this Easter:
How would we write an obituary for the life of Jesus? What names and titles would we use? What dates and measures to define his life?
Would we say “Gone too soon?” While he had only been on earth in the body of a man for 33 years, his existence cannot be measured. Existing outside the realm of time, He had always been; there was no start or beginning. Still, most people knew him as a man and in that embodiment He certainly had a short life. Yet generations of persons had been hoping, praying for his entrance into the darkness of death. It could not come soon enough.
Would we say “a life cut short?" The implication of that is that there was still more life to be lived, things to accomplish, deeds to be done. From the cross He spoke to this very idea, declaring “it is finished.” He had lived his life with purpose and direction, declaring at the young age of 12 that He had to be about his father’s business. There was nothing undone, nothing left to accomplish in life. All that awaited incomplete would be would be resolved in his death and resurrection. His life was not cut short, it was completely fulfilling the highest purpose ever commissioned.
Perhaps we might state in sorrow that He should not have went out the way He did: falsely accused, paraded in humiliation, executed in shame. Yet our reality is that without his bearing that shame we would still be looking for a messiah in our own shame. How ironic that a man would rejoice at his birth, proclaiming with joy that he had been granted privilege to see the messiah, knowing full well that it would ultimately be his death that brought the full purpose of God. Newness of life is born of death, Jesus’ death. Redemptions price paid in the blood of the innocent. His humiliation would fuel our eternal praise. His suffering turned to glory.
Perhaps if some of those close to him were to speak, they could offer fitting words. His own mother must surely have felt some conflict between her love for him and her own need of salvation. Some of them struggled to comprehend this God-with-us concept. “We trusted it was him, but now there is all this chaos and some of our group say his tomb is empty.” The struggle in their faith is readily visible. It’s understandable. He looked and lived a seemingly ordinary human life; nothing outward appearance-wise to reveal the inner deity. Yet when He spoke, people marveled. When He touched, sickness and disease were cured. When He commanded, the wind and waves and even death obeyed. He met with all, ministered to any, saved the willing.
The best man, the only perfect man, to ever live laid down his life for the sinner. In a few days, on that most incredible Easter morning, to the shock of the world, He took that life up again and gave hope to all. He proved that it was not merely pleading words or pretty poetry, but a loving father who had given his only begotten son to bring home the entire family of God. Sin’s remedy was provided and deaths grip had been broken.
Born in a stable, killed on a cross, buried in a borrowed tomb, raised the third day in might and power, reigning in majesty, saving in perfection, returning the lost, redeeming the enslaved, building a kingdom and soon to return. Seated in power, standing in intercession, mediating between death and life. He is the one and only, everlasting mighty King of Kings and Lord of Lords and Jesus is his name.
He has conquered death, (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) and the grave and someday he will call us forth into his eternal, unimaginable presence. He has defeated sin, delivering the souls of men from its clutches and bridled the jaws of death. Death could not hold him, He lives!!
What would I say? Thank you Jesus!
