EASTER
Swept Into Resurrection…
God dies—and is raised from the dead. And even more astonishing: in His death, we die. In His rising, we rise.
"May the God of great hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!"
—Romans 15:13 (MSG)
The Offer of Easter
My wife just recently lost her father to stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It was a tragic loss for the family, and many of you can probably relate or know someone who can. Death is a thief in many ways. But the message of Easter offers something that nothing else can: Hope in the face of suffering–Death has been trampled.
The God Who Does Not Abandon
There are many things we can learn from Easter. But one of the most profound is this:
God is not a God who abandons His creation. He is a God who chooses to suffer for it.
Instead of snapping His fingers to start over after the fall, God stepped into our mess. He didn’t save us by a far-off decree—but by becoming what we are. In the person of Jesus, we see the heart of God put on display.
Abandonment was never part of the conversation between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There’s no moment in Scripture where the Father and Spirit have to talk Jesus into coming.
From beginning to end, it was initiatory love—solving what no one else could solve.
“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
—2 Corinthians 5:21
Jesus needed no convincing. The corrupting effect of sin on creation stirred His heart into action. He came not to change the Father’s mind about us, but to change the way we understand the Father. Sin had twisted our understanding of God—and Jesus came to open our eyes.More than that, He came to suffer so we might have life. He became sin, that we might become righteous.
The God Who Suffers
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote:
“It is good to learn early on that suffering and God are no contradiction, but much more a necessary unity.”
Easter reminds us not only of the victory of Christ’s resurrection, but also the glory of His suffering. Resurrection life was only possible because Jesus embraced the Cross. They were not two separate events—but a unified act of ultimate deliverance.
What was lost through a tree…
has now been redeemed through a tree.
The death we deserved, He took on Himself. We could never pull ourselves back up from the fall in Genesis 3. So He came down. Our suffering King chose to embrace the darkness, find us in the chaos, and lead us back to the Father.
Through His suffering, the old man was crucified. Through His resurrection, a new creation was born.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
—2 Corinthians 5:17
Swept Into Resurrection
Bonhoeffer continues:
“Christ did not come into the world that we might understand Him, but that we might cling to Him—that we might simply let ourselves be swept away by Him into the immense event of the resurrection.”
That’s what Easter invites us into. Not just a truth to agree with. But a Person to cling to. A resurrection to be swept into.
Richard Lovelace writes:
“Salvation is not so much a matter of doing as of appreciating what God has done. God wants us to be free from thinking about ourselves long enough to consider what His love has done.”
Hope in a Hospital Bed
A couple of weeks before Jerry passed away, we were able to visit him in the hospital. Cancer was eating away at his body, but he was in a state of inner peace I had never seen in him before.
He was in a love encounter with the God who suffers. Not only did Jesus suffer for us—He suffers with us. He comforts us in our suffering.
As the cancer did its work, the Holy Spirit was doing His. Jerry began to brim over with hope.
In his own words: “I’m just getting started.”
The promise of resurrection was no longer just ink on a page—it was a felt and present reality. Hope was winning. Jerry had come to a place we all should aim for–Fully surrendered and fully clinging.
What Are You Clinging To?
So this Easter, take a moment to ask yourself:
What am I clinging to?
Where does my hope rest?
Am I trying to understand my way into peace or am I trusting the One who is peace?
Let it be Christ. Look to Him—and live.
Just Keep Looking
Richard John Neuhaus writes:
“Look at Him who is ever looking at you. With whatever faith you have—however feeble and flickering and mixed with doubt—look at Him.”
This Easter, in whatever place you find yourself, look to Him. Look to the One who embraced the tree on your behalf. See Him exiting the tomb in the glory of resurrection.
New creation is happening. He is writing a story—and you are a part of it.
Find your story in His story. His death was your death—His resurrection is your resurrection.
“May the God of great hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!”
—Romans 15:13 (MSG)