A Rip Van Winkle Easter: Part One

Easter came and went in our home ... at about the time it took to read this sentence. No doubt our little bundle of joyful colic (a month old by now) contributed to this Rip Van Winkle Easter. Yet this Easter, ole Rip didn't sleep much. In fact the only thing lulled to sleep in our home lately is our 2-year old (who could sleep through Nuclear Holocaust) and my patience.

In a word, things have been tough ... I mean roasting-and-eating-the-Easter-Bunny-tough.

And yet, I'm supposed to show up at church and preach about the love that conquered Sin, Death, and the Devil. How am I supposed to encourage people that Jesus defeated the Devil, when I feel like a devil?

But therein lies the fallacy that most believers ... and would-be believers buy into. It comes in various forms:

• I'll come to Jesus ... when I can clean myself up.
• I would have come to church today, but I had a terrible fight with my husband .... I'd feel like such a hippocrite!
• The church would burn down if I came in.
• God knows what I think and feel when those idiots at work crowd in on me. I don't think God likes it.

The fallacy we buy into is basically believing that if we cannot be perfect right now then I can have nothing at all to do with the God-stuff (church, worship, Jesus, Salvation, etc.). But in reality that is what Easter is all about.

We read in Mark's Gospel (15:37, 38) "And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom." Why does Mark think it necessary to include this detail? Mark is not a camcorder, recording infinite details that may or may not have anything to do with the story. Mark chooses details for a significant purpose.

Until Jesus came God's presence lived in an inner chamber in the Jewish Temple called the Holy of Holies. No one could enter here ... well no one except the Jewish High Priest. He could enter only once a year ... and for the express purpose of making a sacrifice for the Sin of the people. When Jesus died he paid the penalty for the Sin of not only the Jewish people but also for the entire World. Jesus has paid the penalty for Sin, and now not only Jewish people but also the entire world can have access to the presence of God. (http://www.followtherabbi.com/Brix?pageID=2134)

I am accepted by the blood of Jesus. Yet, that is not the whole Gospel. Not only am I accepted by God because of the blood of Jesus, but his Holy Spirit seeks to transform me into the righteousness of God. It's not "just as if I were righteous." I am becoming the righteousness of God ... because of the Holy Spirit's changing me.

When I see ugly stuff pop up in my life, I don't need to avoid God. I certainly don't need to celebrate it, but I don't need to avoid God, either. Rather, I need to run straight to the Father in worship, pleading for Him to cleanse me and transform me. That is part of the Easter message.