The Significance of Easter
Have you noticed that Jesus death on a cross dominates Christianity?
Put it this way: imagine a visitor from a foreign culture looking round St Paul’s Cathedral. On top of that beautiful dome they notice a golden cross. Shown a ground plan of the nave & transepts they notice that the building is built in the shape of a cross. In a side chapel they notice a table with a cross on it. Visiting the catacombs to see the tombs of Wren, Wellington and Nelson they see a cross engraved on each.
Sitting down for a short service they see a man with cross in his lapel, and a woman with a cross round her neck. The service begins with the hymn: ‘We sing the praise of him who died, Of him who died upon the cross’. A man holding a cross heads the procession of choir and Ministers. In the service of Holy Communion the Minister says ‘take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you’. The service ends with the hymn: ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’.
Perhaps following the main service there is a baptism and the Minister says to the infant ‘I sign you with the sign of the cross, to show that you must not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified…’.
As you leave you take a free copy of the gospel of John, about Jesus, and you find that nearly half of that book is about the events leading up to Jesus death on a cross. You leave puzzled: why this obsession with a man dying on a cross?
In his account of the death of Jesus on the cross, Mark in his gospel gives us a number of clues about why it is that Christians value that sacrifice so much. I want to touch on two of them.
Mark tells us that as Jesus hung on the cross ‘darkness came over the whole land’.
Darkness stands for God’s wrath, his just anger towards sin. The Old Testament speaks of a day of wrath…a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness.
Mark then tells us that Jesus cried out ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Jesus was saying that God had forsaken him, deserted him, and left him.
Jesus was not just saying ‘I feel forsaken’. He was stating what had actually happened : God had really turned his back on him.
Why on earth would God have deserted his Son in his hour of need? It seems a callous thing to do.
The reason is that at that moment on the cross Jesus took responsibility for all the wrong that mankind has done. By so doing he brought on himself God’s wrath towards sin. He bore it himself.
Many years ago I was sitting on a beach in West Wales when a summer thunderstorm storm suddenly blew up. I hurried off the beach and went home. The next day I heard that one family had remained on the beach. They sheltered under a rug. But, tragically, the father’s arm with a metal wristwatch on it was not covered. The lightning was attracted to the watch and the man was killed. Nothing can adequately illustrate what Christ was doing on the cross, but see it as him drawing upon himself the lightning of God’s anger towards sin.
The cry from the cross teaches us that on the cross JC was bearing the punishment of the last sin of the worst sinner that ever lived.
What this means is that the Christian can come to the Judgement Day unafraid. This imaginary dialogue between God’s law and the Christian makes this point :
‘Man,’ says the law of God, ‘have you obeyed my commands?’
‘No’ says the sinner, ‘I have transgressed them in thought, word, and deed.’
‘Well, then, sinner’ says the law, ‘have you paid the penalty which I have pronounced upon those who have disobeyed? Have you died in the sense that I meant when I said, “The soul that sins it shall die”?’
‘Yes’, says the sinner, ‘I have died. That penalty that you pronounced upon my sin has been paid.’
‘What do you mean,’ says the law, ‘by saying that you have died? You do not look as though you had died. You look as though you were very much alive.’
‘Yes,’ says the sinner, ‘I have died. I died there on the cross outside the walls of Jerusalem; for Jesus died there as my representative and my substitute. I died there so far as the penalty of the law was concerned.’
‘You say Christ is your representative and substitute,’ says the law. ‘Then I have indeed no further claim of penalty against you. The curse which I pronounced against your sin has indeed been fulfilled. My threatenings are very terrible, but I have nothing to say against those for whom Christ died.’
To the Christian, knowing that one’s sins can justly be forgiven, is knowledge more precious than any other possession.
Strikingly, Marghanita Lasski, a well-known secular humanist and novelist, recognised the value of this gift, even though not a Christian. Not long before she died in 1988 in a moment of surprising candour on television, she said: “What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me”
It’s important to understand that Forgiveness by God is not automatic. It is a gift we have to receive. A friend once offered to pay for me to have a suit made to measure. All I had to do was go to the tailor, be measured and pick the suit up later on. I didn’t have to pay. But I did have to receive the gift. Similarly, when it comes to our sins, we don’t have to pay, but we do have to receive the gift.
In the 1970s after the Watergate affair, Richard Nixon, President of the USA was removed from office. I once heard, though I have not followed it up myself, that later on he was offered a Free Pardon for his part in the Watergate crime. But he refused the Pardon because he said he was not guilty. Many people fail to receive God’s gift of forgiveness because they don’t really think they’ve done anything wrong. But this is a terrible mistake to make.
Let me summarise. Because of the death of Jesus Christ on a cross it is as though the Christian’s sin has been dropped in a deep lake and a sign put up next to the lake saying ‘No fishing’. Therefore, when we meet God, He will be able to say…”Hello old friend it’s good to see you” rather than “I don’t think we’ve met. I never knew you”
That is why the cross is so precious to Christians and that is the significance of Easter.
Leave a Reply
What's On Crossring
Crossring is a community of Christians who meet together online in fellowship around the Christian faith and the Bible.
As part of our active lifestyle of prayer and Bible reading, we are currently reading a small section of the Bible together each day and sharing our responses to it with each other. We also publish a short devotional thought on a key verse or two from each day's passage to prompt prayer or reflection.
Community
Please feel free to browse the website. If you wish to participate in the Forums, however, you will need to login or register with us to help keep the spammers at bay.
On the Forums
Reply To: Communion etiquette
by Phill Sacre 19:57 18/10/11
Communion etiquette
by lordkenley 21:20 17/10/11
Driscoll: "Got Hates You"
by Phill Sacre 21:09 11/10/11
Reply To: Prayers of praise: let's praise together!
by Martin Laker 05:43 03/10/11
Reply To: Blindfolded monkeys and Christian songs
by Phill Sacre 14:33 29/09/11
Crossring on Facebook
Crossring on Twitter
Whole Site RSS