Barb and I love Easter. Not because of chocolate bunnies, Easter eggs, Easter Sunrise services, spiral hams, family traditions, or marshmallow peeps. It’s because after celebrating Lent, meditating and praying through the Holy Week, contemplating Good Friday, we finally get to celebrate the Good News of Resurrection Sun day.

We started today at an Easter Sunrise Service to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection with some of our neighbors and friends. It was gorgeous.

And I enjoyed reading, meditating upon, and contemplating what my friend Gary Bauer wrote in an article “The Good News.” I thought he might bless you, also:

There has been plenty of bad news lately. The invasion of our southern border continues unabated. Israel is under siege. Anti-Semitism is on the rise. The war in Ukraine rages on, as does the left’s unrelenting assault on our values.

On Good Friday, we focused on the perfect Lamb, the truth of scripture, and exactly what it is that we as Christians are celebrating.

As a child, I wanted a different ending to the Easter story. If only Christ had come down from the cross and destroyed His enemies — that would have demonstrated His power. That is what I thought then. Of course, I learned how wrong that impulse was.

Christ had to die so that we might have everlasting life. His sacrifice on the cross saved all who believe in Him. As Charles Wesley wrote in his famous hymn: “Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, should die for me?”

Romans 5:8 tells us, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

While some worship a god who commands men to die for him, we worship a loving God who gave His son to die for us. What a contrast! What a savior!

Of course, Christ did more than just give up His life. He conquered death and rose from the grave. Obviously, Christmas is earth shattering in that God took on human form. But the Resurrection was the fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation.

If Christ had not risen from the grave, He would have been forgotten as a common criminal, a rabble-rouser whose birthday would have no significance.

With Christ’s resurrection, we have confidence.

Confidence in a caring Creator, rather than the chaos of the cosmos.

Confidence in a glorious future, rather than the finality of the grave.

Confidence that sustains us in times of trial and tribulation, especially in times such as these.

Today, my friends, let us focus on the Good News that on Resurrection Sunday, we do not remember a prophet or a martyr. We worship the risen Son of God!

Amen.

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