Getting Excited About Easter

Make no mistake, the week of Easter is the most important week in human history to this day. It all seemed to end in tragedy as Jesus, the King of the Jews, breathed His last breath on the Cross and gave up His Spirit on Friday. Until three days later, the stone was found rolled away revealing an empty tomb where Jesus’ body was laid to rest. A short time later, Jesus revealed Himself to His people having conquered the grave and accomplished the mission for which He came to earth. This week is a BIG deal!

Many will argue against Christ’s resurrection. Many will not believe simply because it is a supernatural event that defies human reasoning. Others will say that the disciples lied and made the whole thing up. Some won’t even take the time to consider what actually happened nearly 2000 years ago. This is to their shame. The evidence is available and conclusive. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He is alive today. And the message of forgiveness of sins and eternity with Him is still offered to all who would put their faith in Him, deny themselves, and follow Him.

We must consider Christ’s offer of rest for our souls and forgiveness of our sins with urgency. When we put off seeking first the Kingdom of God, we show by our actions that we do not feel our sinful condition is that urgent of a thing to reconcile. We show that we are comfortable as rebels who have forsaken the God who has created the heavens and the earth. Our actions condemn us. There is nothing as foolish as putting off finding assurance of eternal life in Jesus Christ. And there is nothing so wise as stopping everything that occupies our time until we have determined who we believe Jesus Christ is and why 2000 years later a bunch of people called Christians still celebrate Easter, not by eating chocolate bunnies, but by singing about the wondrous Cross and the blood of Jesus.

The present is the only time that is guaranteed to any of us. You could breathe your last before you finish reading this. Don’t think that you will have another opportunity to consider Jesus Christ. One day, you will be wrong and it will be too late.

So perhaps none of that gets you excited about Easter. Perhaps it makes you anxious or nervous. If you’re still reading, I want to show you why I find such joy in the Easter season, and hopefully, by God’s grace, you will find joy too. The joy I speak of is joy that Jesus says cannot be taken from you.

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

John 16:22

Jesus said these words to His disciples who still had not grasped what had to take place that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Can you hear Him saying these same words to you?

Flipping back to the end of Luke, we see this joy lived out in Jesus’ disciples.

While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.

Luke 24:51-53

What are His disciples rejoicing in? Is it fame? Is it fortune? Clearly, it cannot be about these things. So why are they filled with joy after their leader was killed? They are filled with joy because they finally realized that their greatest need and desire was not earthly recognition but heavenly recognition. They realized that their biggest problem was not with the Romans or the legalistic Jews who would have them following every item of the law down to its last detail. They saw clearly that their biggest problem was that they had violated God’s standard of holiness and were under His condemnation and wrath.

Now, this isn’t grounds for rejoicing, unless they also had discovered the means by which God’s wrath might be satisfied by being poured out on another. This is what Jesus did for them and what He does for us.

If you don’t feel the weight and severity of God’s wrath, consider for a moment what transpired at the Cross, as Jesus hung in agony. It was noon, and yet the land was dark. This isn’t because of a bad thunderstorm. This is because God was present and prepared to inflict His wrath on His innocent Son. The sins of every man, woman, and child who ever lived were imputed onto Jesus. Consider the injustice you feel when someone blames you for something you didn’t do! And then consider how the Son of God remained silent even though He was innocent.

The darkness. The nails. The blood. The weeping. The sneers. The insults. And the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus Christ. God’s wrath was satisfied.

Consider what God has done for all who are in Christ.

He has delivered you from the domain of darkness and transferred you to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1:13-14

Now consider the alternative. The same wrath that Christ bore on the Cross awaits all who reject Jesus Christ.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

Romans 1:18-19

God, in His mercy, has made Himself known to us. His love. His splendor. His grace. His justice. He sent His Son to die so that we might be spared from His wrath.

So why am I excited about Easter? Because I have been made alive with Jesus Christ. I have experienced and continue to experience the joy of Christ that no one can take away. The hope I have in my Anchor is that my sins are forgiven and that I now wear a robe of righteousness. I have been set free from the captivity of sin. There is no more fear of God’s wrath. There is only joy from His love. I have already entered eternal life because I know the one and only God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (John 17:3). I have a room reserved for me in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. My God will wipe away every tear from my eyes and leave me with unimaginable joy. I will be in heaven with Jesus Christ, my treasure, in pure, undefiled worship having received the deepest yearning of my heart, fellowship with God.

Easter points me to the Cross, where Jesus made all of this possible. It should have been me. I should have died. I don’t deserve God’s grace. I deserve His judgment. But I have been given a gift, and it is more spectacular than life! So I will praise Him who gives me life. I will follow Christ wherever He leads. He is worth losing everything for. Because, He is everything.

This is why I am excited about Easter. This is why Easter is my favorite time of year. It grows my affections for Jesus and makes me long for Heaven where I will see Him face to face and fall at His feet in thanksgiving for all that He is to me.

I hope you will pause this Easter season to let the immensity of Christ’s death and resurrection stir up new and deeper affections for Jesus Christ. He died for you after all.

But He was wounded for our transgressions;

He was crushed for our iniquities;

Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

And with His stripes we are healed.

And we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned—every one—to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5-6