Reflections on Easter that Apply All Year Long

• Series: Easter 2009
• by: Adam Sheffield 04/06/09

Growing up, Easter was always a time where I had to wear some outfit to church my mom liked but was probably going to be uncomfortable for me. Then we’d go over to my grandparent’s house and have an Easter egg hung with all my cousins and eat ham and of course lots of candy. Not a bad Easter, right? But it misses the point. Once I got older, Easter was a day where I would dress myself up in something nice but still comfortable, go to church and praise Jesus for what He did for me, then go eat lunch with my family, and yes, some candy too. Again, not a bad Easter, but over the last year I’ve realized that Jesus didn’t come to this earth, survive the torture He went through only to be nailed to a cross and bleed to death for me or any other person on this earth. He did it for the glory of His Father!

Do we benefit from what Jesus did? Absolutely! Our lives would be wasted, full of total despair, filled with anger, fear, and hatred if our destiny were to live a pointless life on this unfeeling rock only to be damned to eternal torture and separation in hell once we died. So yes, we benefit greatly from Jesus’ death and resurrection! More so than any other thing on this planet, but we must understand that Jesus came to earth and faithfully finished out His mission to the end because of the love He has for the Father, which compelled Him to do everything in life and in death to glorify God.

Jesus’ sacrifice wasn’t offered to us. It was offered for us, on our behalf, to God who required a ransom to pay for the sins of all mankind. Jesus, the perfect sacrificial lamb, gave Himself as an offering which pleased God. The prophet Isaiah foretold of this hundreds and hundreds of year before it happened in chapter 53:5, 10

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

Then, in Hebrews 12:2 we see that Jesus, “who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” So the Father was pleased to crush the Son, and the Son found joy in obeying the Father’s will because it glorified the Father to follow His will. Even when it led to dying at the hands of mortal, sinful men on a cross.

We too, must come to love the Father, desire to glorify the Father, and find joy in obeying the Father’s will so much that our motivation is not how we can get ahead in life or what we can gain from doing this or that, but how can we glorify God in everything we do? Even in suffering at His loving hand. This is the lesson Peter attempts to teach in I Peter 4:1-2 when he says, “Since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.”

We must be willing to embrace sacrifice as though we were gathering up treasure for ourselves. We must gladly accept what little suffering and pain we truly face in our pampered lives knowing that God has our best interest in mind. And what’s our best interest? Surrendering to an all-powerful, all-knowing, and unequaled God who is the creator and sustainer of all, the One who always was, always will be, and always is, is what is in our best interest. Try and tell me it’s not!

Being a Christian doesn’t start and end with the conversion experience. It’s a continual life of surrender, just like Jesus’ was. We must imitate Jesus by willingly giving of ourselves until there is nothing left of us. Only then will God’s Spirit be able to live through us without having to fight against us. We must actively seek out the ways in which we can glorify God through our actions and words every day. From the way we spend our money, to the way we raise our children, to the way we speak to each other as members of the body of Christ, it must all give glory to God. For who else is worth our lives? No one but Jesus Christ our Savior! Who has ever given up everything they had and everything they wanted for us to have a second chance after we already blew it? No one but Jesus Christ our King! And yet He did it to the glory of God because that was the Father’s will.