Easter Hope

Last weekend my husband and I attended my uncle’s funeral.  He will be mightily missed, but my cousins and I had a lovely time remembering and reconnecting.

Tuesday morning we all woke up to news of another devastating terror attack in Brussels.

My Facebook news feed is peppered with prayer requests of all kinds.  Over a lifetime, no one escapes trouble.

This weekend we will remember Jesus’s suffering and death on Friday night and then we will celebrate his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

What hope does Easter offer to people who are suffering or who are dealing with loss?

Jesus suffered

Jesus is God, and he suffered.  Good Friday is the shocking day when the One who created the universe was tortured and executed by the people he loved and came to save.  He did it voluntarily, for that was the only way, and he experienced the most intense suffering imaginable.

Christianity is the only world religion that worships a Savior who suffered for us.  We don’t have to get our lives together before we accept him.  We don’t have to have special insight or adopt certain practices or be perfect to be saved. All we have to do is to take a serious look what happened on Good Friday and Easter Sunday and ask ourselves what it means.

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Live in the confidence and promise of the resurrection 

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the climax of God’s story.  Jesus won; he beat death. His life, death and resurrection had been planned from the beginning, and when the time was right Jesus saved the world.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the linchpin of Christianity. Paul put it this way, “…if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” (I Corinthians 15:14) But Jesus did rise from the dead and our faith is not useless.

We can take tremendous confidence in the fact that we serve a risen Savior. “If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”  (Romans 8:31-32)  Live in the confidence of Jesus Christ, who beat death and who offers us eternal life with Him.

We can also take confidence in the fact that we too will be raised from the dead. “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5) Live in that promise.

“The body that is  sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”  I Corinthians 15:42-44

What hope do you know at Easter?