We Just Won the Championship

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. In addition to holy week, I guess the NFL schedule was released this past Wednesday night. I only know this because one of the ladies in my Bible study said she might have to peek at her phone a few times to check for it. It made me think of how we celebrate weird things. No judgment here, I celebrate weird things too. I think God’s cool with that. But He makes it clear that we are to also celebrate certain things when it comes to our faith in Him. When Moses was given the law, God commanded the people to celebrate feasts for things like Passover so that the people wouldn’t forget what God has done. Because we are so very forgetful. And when we forget the goodness of God, we put other stuff on the throne.

If the NFL schedule being released is like Christmas, Easter is a championship victory that didn’t seem possible. If you live in a city that’s won a national championship, you understand how a place can go completely insane over a victory. What’s funny is when people celebrate as if they had something to do with the win. As if, by being a season ticket holder and buying concessions and cheering, they made the athletes victorious. Easter is a victory for us. It’s Jesus’ victory over death and sin that he fought on our behalf. But most of us aren't even season ticket holders let alone in any way responsible for his victory. And yet, all who believe are forgiven. Anyone can share his victory. There’s no shame in bandwagon fans. In fact, that’s one of the reasons we choose to celebrate every year. To grab more dead and suffering people and pull them into our victorious, eternal bandwagon.

As a highly sensitive person, Easter week is hard for me. I feel so much and the idea of Jesus willingly being wrongly accused, beaten, carrying a cross up a hill, hearing the jeers of the crowd that loved him a week ago, and going to hell for my sins...it’s almost too much for me to bear. I’m not being dramatic. I have a very hard time with the days leading up to Easter. But then Sunday comes and everything changes because the tomb is empty. When it seemed like all was lost, Jesus triumphed over death.

Those words feel empty because they’ve been said thousands of times over thousands of years, but hear them again. But then Sunday comes and everything changes because the tomb is empty. When it seemed like all was lost, Jesus triumphed over death.

There’s a story that one of Martin Luther’s congregates complained to him once that he preached the gospel every week. A guess pastors have always had some annoying people in their churches. Anyway, his response is perfect. He said something like, “I’ll stop preaching the gospel every week once you walk in here like you know it.”

So, since Sunday came, did that change everything? Do we live like people who know what happened with the tomb? Because we can’t go back to business as usual if we truly understand it. It should change everything about how we spend our time, our money, how we try to reach others, how we worship, how we parent, everything… It should change everything.

Will you pray this with me?

Dear Jesus,

I'll never know why you chose to save me, but I'm so glad you did. Help me live each day like I understand we already won. Help me walk like I know Sunday came and the tomb was empty.

Amen

Blessings,

Shannon