We Rise as Easter People

As a Pastor/Minister, working with different denominations is not always easy because they are different.

There are different ways of working, rules and regulations, and ways of thinking. However, one common thing across all three denominations that came across loud and clear was to get back to basics, worship Jesus Christ from our heart, and know why we are doing it. Once a pagan festival celebrating fertility, Easter is now exclusively a celebrating God in the flesh freeing us from the dark bondages of this world,

Sometimes we can go along merrily in our Christian life, thinking and doing the same old things we’ve always done, not understanding why we think or do them.

Once in a while, it’s good to allow the Word of God to challenge us, causing us to reflect upon our own spirituality.

We are now coming out of the season of Lent, which has given us space to reflect upon our faith. Lent has given us space to be challenged, helping us face what we believe, don’t, and why.

We are approaching Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter/ Resurrection Sunday. Between Palm Sunday and Easter, Saturday is a holy week to reflect upon such questions again. By the time we all get to Easter Sunday, we see the revealing of the answer to what life is all about.

Easter is not all about Easter eggs; it’s time we hear Jesus saying to us, ‘what do you believe?’

Why do you believe the things you do? Do you believe in me being God in the flesh? So Jesus challenged people by asking them, ‘who do you say I am?

In modern terms, I guess it’s about being honest with ourselves and God. On Good Friday, we reflect upon the cross coming face-to-face with the ugliness of sin and what it means to be saved by grace. We reflect upon how Christ took upon our sinful nature and nailed it to the cross and laid it in a tomb, and left it there.

Finally, on Easter Sunday, we rejoice because Christ has risen and is victorious over the power of sin and death. Jesus didn’t do this for himself but for you, me, and the whole world.

I invite you to use the Holy Week to reflect upon the last part of Christ’s journey to the cross and your relationship to that journey.

We rise as Easter people in the light of God, free from sin, assured that our relationship with the Father God is solid and sure.

So the next time you look at an Easter egg, think about the new life that an egg produces; new life for you is the Easter story.

I hope you all will be a very happy Easter, and may God richly bless you.