I love the entire Easter season, from Ash Wednesday, Lenten, Good Friday, to Resurrection Sunday and Easter Monday. I love the idea of sacrificing something to keep me focused on the sacrifice of Christ. This year I tackled a big one... a fast from sugar. I was 70% successful at it and even lost a couple of kilos for my efforts. This year we (me, my family and our entire church family) were involved in an Easter production with our brothers and sisters from the Chinese Alliance Christian Church called iTouch Easter. This was so excellent. The church building was transformed into a kind of walk through the old Jerusalem format. We broke Easter down into an acronym, E= Entering the City, A= Accusing Jesus, S= Suffering, T= tomb, E= Eyewitness, R = Resurrection. Then we added a twist by associating each of the sections with one (or more) of the 5 Senses. E/A= hearing, S= bitter taste, T= smell of death, E= seeing, and R= touch. It was very well done and we had over 500 people walk through over four evenings. The weather was perfect and the effort was well worth it. We all had such a great time. It was good for our church to take on an ambitious task, it was good for our two churches to work together on a project and it was good personally to be immersed in the significance of the amazing story of love and sacrifice that Easter is. This year as usual I seek the Lord to help me find fresh meaning in this ancient and often told story. I landed on the verses from Matthew 27: 50-54. And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” This passage speaks of such amazing things that grab the imagination and fuel a sense of wonder and awe. Jesus gives up his own Spirit, at that moment, the temple curtain tears in two, there is an earthquake, rocks split and tombs open, then holy saints of old are resurrected and after Jesus resurrection they all go into the city of Jerusalem... Imagine the panic, the bewilderment, the absolute horror of seeing dead people up and eating breakfast, trying to enjoy being reunited with shocked family and friends, I mean, what do you talk about with resurrected Uncle Abraham? All of this took place to give us confidence that what we believe is no fairy tale or mythical story, it was real, bonafide, proven, historical and powerful enough that a wily, battle worn, tough as nails, centurion and his entire cohort of guards were not only terrified but also uttered the astounding words, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" Given the circumstances that he and his men found themselves in what other options did they have? It was pure crazy pandemonium and all of it from start to finish just happened to coincidentally coincide with Jesus shouting out his last words and giving up his Spirit. So cool! So if you are a believer be encouraged you are not putting your faith in some mystical fable. If you are not yet a believer what other options do you have given this overwhelming eye witnessed evidence? Hope you all had an incredible and enjoyable Easter Season this year.
