Easter Sunday. A day we celebrate Christ’s rising from the
dead, His victory over death. The end of the weekend where we contemplate His
suffering and the horrendous death He faced, along with the separation from the
Father. Sunday. A day of remembrance and celebration.
And then it becomes Monday. Maybe we still take a moment to
think about it, to send a quick “thank you” kind of shout out to God for His
salvation. Then it becomes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday… and soon the
celebration of the resurrection is nothing more than a distant memory and we
have pushed it to the back of our minds for another year.
It doesn’t take long for us to get back into the routine of
our lives and for us to forget the great things He has done for us. And even
beyond forgetting, we start to backslide from joyous remembrance to angry
disappointment. We are once again faced with the trials and struggles of life
and we may even turn back to god to shake our fist at Him; to blame Him for our
problems.
I am as guilty of this as anyone. When things are hard for
me, I don’t turn to what he has done for me. I look as what He hasn’t done. When a friend from high
school drowned, I asked God how He could do that. When my mom was suffering
from cancer and it took her just months after my friend had died, I couldn’t
understand God’s choosing not to heal her or why He couldn’t have at least
given me some time to grieve for my friend. As I fight a daily battle with
depression, I ask God why He hasn’t taken it from me. Every time I’m faced with
the difficulties of life, I don’t run into His arms; I turn my back on Him and
scream at Him.
And yet, look at what He has done for me.
I think back to a week ago at school when we had a speaker
come in. I remember one thing he said clearer than any other; If God never did anything for us beyond
saving us, that is enough. As first I blanched back from this. I couldn’t
understand how this man speaking could say that. My thoughts were along the
lines of, what about that is wrong with
the world? Pain, death, disaster… How can this man say that God’s done enough?
And then I thought about it. God paid the ultimate cost for us by taking on
human form through the Person of Christ. He saved people who should be nothing
to Him. People who, as a race, had turned their back on Him.
In our human thoughts, the proper response to betrayal is
to, in turn, turn our backs on the betrayer. However God, in His infinite love
and grace decided to do the unthinkable from a human perspective; He reconciled
us to Himself.
So I guess now I have to ask myself the other question; how can I say that what He has done isn’t
enough?
Who am I to judge what God does when He has already taken
care of the worst fate that humanity can face through His Son, and all we have
to do to have this salvation is to believe? If God stepped back and just let
the world run its course in this present evil age, He has still done enough. He
would have been just to condemn the whole world to hell and He chose a
different course.
I know that I’m not going to always remember this in the
hard times, but I know that what we celebrate today is enough. Christ’s death
and resurrection is more than we deserve. Easter is enough. I pray that as this
day passes and we move on with our lives that He would bring into our remembrance
that He truly has done enough.
He is Risen.
