This is one of my favorite holidays of the year.  It is the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.  He died, but He did not stay dead.  This is the most important belief of Christianity.  Some would disagree with me.  They would say Jesus’ death is the most important belief.  And yes, that’s important.  But without the resurrection that is nothing.  It’s just a dead man.

You see, everyone dies.  And there have been many people throughout history who died for others.  And some people have even come back to life again.  Jesus Himself raised people from the dead.  But no one did what Jesus did.  He did these three things:

1. He lived a sinless life.  He kept the whole law and never offended in one point.
2. He died for the sins of humankind.  He died a substitutionary death, experiencing God’s wrath in the place of those who deserved it.
3. He rose from the dead–a proof of God’s acceptance of his death and sacrifice and at the same time conquering man’s greatest and oldest enemy–death.

All three are important.  Jesus conquered death for me; He conquered sin; and He keeps me from having to experience the wrath of God.  And when I think of God’s holiness, I feel so dirty in comparison.  I don’t deserve to have any favor with God, and yet Jesus makes it possible.

It’s awesome when you think about it.  Jesus didn’t have anyone raise Him from the dead.  He did it Himself.  And He didn’t just have a near-death experience.  He was in the grave, stone-cold–pronounced dead–for three days.  That’s long enough for the body to start decomposing.  And if you know anything about how he died–crucifixion–you know there’s no way He could have been anything but dead.

And then three days after His burial when His followers went to mourn at the grave, He wasn’t there.  They thought somebody had stolen the body, that someone had played the cruelest kind of joke on them, but then He appeared to them and talked to them, and they could see and hear and touch Him.  He was real.  He was really alive.  It was amazing.  It had never happened before.  And it has never happened since.

By rising from the dead Jesus proved two things: that He is God and that God accepted His sacrifice.

If any of His followers doubted Jesus’ divinity, His resurrection caused them to stop doubting.  Coming back to life after being dead takes power.  And who else would have that kind of power but He who could create life in the first place?  And who can create life but God?  Jesus’ resurrection shows that He has the ultimate power–that of creating life, especially life from death.

And His resurrection shows that He does that on a spiritual scale as well.  For what is the message of the gospel but that Jesus lived a sinless life, thus earning Him favor with God, but chose to instead suffer God’s wrath on behalf of people (you and me) who could never earn that favor and who would otherwise be doomed to suffer God’s wrath?  And that He basically creates new spiritual life where before there was just deadness.  (Ephesians 2:1,5; 2 Corinthians 5:17)  God accepted His sacrifice.  And He had to come back to tell us about it.  Otherwise how would we know?  Besides, if He conquered sin (that sacrifice God accepted) but couldn’t or didn’t conquer death, what good is that really?  Don’t we fear death a whole lot more than judgment?  What good is power if it isn’t useful?  And so Jesus conquered death too.  He left no enemies undefeated.

And He offers the same power to us.  Not only can He save our souls, but He can save our lives as well.  I mean the day-to-day living of our lives.  The life of Jesus in us breathes power into our routines; He helps us fulfill our responsibilities when they would overwhelm us.  He changes us too.  His business that first Easter Sunday and every day since has been and is to create new life out of death.  He takes our brokenness, our hurts, our issues, our bad habits, our problems, our failings, our sinfulness, and redeems it.  He makes us new creatures–new, but still us.  He makes us better people.  From the inside out, not the outside in.  In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he prays that his readers would know

what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power

which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:19,20)

and in his letter to the Philippians Paul writes that his goal is to

…know Him [Christ] and the power of His resurrection… (Philippians 3:10)

May you know the power of Jesus’ resurrection today and every day.  May we all live in that power daily.

If you will permit, I’d like to share my favorite resurrection hymn.  I learned this hymn as a very young child.  My dad taught it to me at home.  It’s always been special to me since.

Listen to it at cyberhymnal.

Christ Arose

Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior!
Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain:

Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes;
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose!  He arose!
Hallelujah!  Christ arose!

Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus my Savior!
Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain

Death cannot keep his prey, Jesus my Savior!
He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain

I remember reading once I John 2:1,2:

My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin.  And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

Actually I was reading it in French that day, which looks like this:

Mes petits enfants, je vous écris ces choses, afin que vous ne péchiez point.  Et si quelqu’un a péché, nous avons un avocat aupréz du Père, Jésus-Christ le juste.

Il est lui-même une victime expiatoire pour nos péchés, non seulement pour les notres, mais aussi pour ceux du monde entier.

Now I knew avocat (advocate) was lawyer.  Jesus is our lawyer, representing us and pleading our case before God.  That much I understood.  But what I didn’t understand was what expiatoire meant.  So I read the same verse in English, but that didn’t help.  I didn’t know what propitiation meant either.  So I looked up expiatoire in my French-English dictionary, and it said that expiatoire meant a sacrifice or in place of.  That was interesting.  I already knew what victime was–victim.  So when it said that Jesus was a victime expiatoire, it was saying that Jesus was a sacrificial victim, a victim who died in the place of another.

And He was a victime expiatoire for nos péchés–our sins.  So He died in the place of our sins.  “And not for ours only but also for the whole world” or du monde entier–the entire world.  And yet He is our lawyer.  If life were a courtroom drama and God were the judge and we were on trial for our sins, then according to this verse Jesus, the righteous, the sinless one, died for us.  He took the death penalty for us.  And now He represents us before God.  In such a scenario only Jesus can convincingly argue for our aquittal.  If the sentence has already been served, then what need is there for any further trial?  Only Jesus’ substitutionary death (which is what propitiation means) can set us free.

So Jesus is my victime expiatoire.  He sacrificed Himself to die in my place.  Well does the Bible say (Romans 5:7,8):

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

People will die for their loved ones; they will die for comrades-in-arms; but I don’t know of anyone who will die for a sinner, a bad person.  But Jesus did.

In honor of today, I would like to share my favorite “cross” hymn.  The words were written by Isaac Watts and the music by Lowell Mason.  You can read more about these men or listen to the music at cyberhymnal.

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most–
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See, from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small:
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

This is the day, Jesus said, that if the people didn’t praise Him the very rocks would cry out.  I’ve always wondered what the rocks would have sounded like.

It reminds me of that verse in Isaiah that the song “The Trees of the Field” is based on.  The song is copyrighted, but you can read the lyrics here.  There is no audio file, but the chords are given and the song is written in Dminor, if that helps.  Part of the reason I love this song is because it is in minor.  I love minor songs.  But this one is a happy minor, if you can believe such a thing exists. Below is the verse it’s based on:

For you shall go out with joy,
And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Isaiah 55:12

I thought about posting the text of a hymn of praise, but there were too many good ones to choose from.  Then I thought about posting the text of a psalm of praise, but again, there were too many good ones.  So I will have to tell you to go read your hymnal and go read your Bible!  Or, you can share with me your favorite hymn, psalm, or spiritual song (Ephesians 5:19) in comments.  I look forward to hearing which ones you like.  If you don’t have a hymnal handy you can refresh your memory of the lyrics or tune over at cyberhymnal.

Meanwhile have a very blessed Palm Sunday as you reflect on the Savior who entered Jerusalem being lauded as a conquering king, but who was really entering the city for a very different reason, to die as a condemned criminal.  The people thought he was there to conquer the Romans and set up a Jewish kingdom, but he was really there to conquer something much more profound: sin and death and the wrath of God.  As things have turned out that has had a greater and more lasting effect than a Jewish overthrow of the Romans would have.  Thank you, Jesus, for dying in my place.

May God bless you all.