All our Easter celebrations are going to look different this year. There will be no community wide Easter egg hunts. People will not gather for church on Easter morning with hundreds of other worshipers while being dressed in their Easter finest. Churches that bring in live animals on Easter will need to leave them in the barn. There will be no organized photo booths in church atriums. Easter is going to look very different this year because of all that is happening with the current pandemic.
Yet, amid this current situation there is no message that we need more than the message of Easter. As people spend time in greater isolation, with more time for thinking and contemplating, their concern grows over the future, their life and the lives of their loved ones. There is one great message that can speak eternal hope into this situation, and it is the message of Easter.
It is the message that because of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead we do not need to fear death. Jesus defeated sin and death when He rose from the dead. I Corinthians 15:17 says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” If there is no resurrection of Jesus, then there is no hope of us being saved from our sins because sin has won. But that is not our reality! Our reality is that Jesus has risen from the dead and in so doing He has defeated sin and death. “Thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57)
The resurrection of Jesus that we celebrate on Easter is what gives us hope during every crisis and challenge in life because we know that we will be ultimately raised to new life with Him. Jesus declares, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) If we believe in Jesus, His resurrection makes our new life and resurrection from the dead a reality. It is our eternal hope in the resurrection from the dead that allows us to hold our lives more loosely in the midst of a crisis like this one and to have peace that in life or death, God has good for us. It is absolutely true that for followers of Jesus “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)
Because of that amazing truth that flows out of the Easter message we can live with peace and joy even as things look bleak around us. There is no message that is needed more right now, and at all times, than the message of Jesus’ resurrection to defeat sin and death, and the possibility of new life if we repent and place our faith in Him. We spread that amazing message of hope for all eternity this unusual Easter.
Join us this Sunday as we celebrate Easter and the HOPE given to us by of our resurrected Savior.
Join us online at 9:00am as we stream to Youtube at youtube.com/friendshipmn and 10:45am on Facebook at facebook.com/friendshipmn.