Happy Easter

Happy Easter! I pray that you each have time to truly reflect on why we celebrate Easter. The BEST thing I know is that Jesus died on the cross to save our sins. We will have eternal life with Him in heaven!

During Lent this season, I had the opportunity to read a book written by Christian author Max Lucado entitled And The Angels Were Silent. Our church encouraged us to read this book throughout Lent and the sermon each week touched on the readings. I am so thankful that God encouraged me to pick up this book! Lucado takes the reader on a journey, examining the last week of Jesus' life on earth.
I felt that it was a privilege to have such a focus during Lent this year - I had never gone through this type of exercise before. The book has some very powerful chapters and it conjured up so many thoughts and feelings for me.

One of the coolest chapters is toward the end of the book - chapter 25 titled "A Prayer of Discovery." The chapter starts by looking at Matthew 27:42:

"My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
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Here are some of excerpts from the chapter - trust me, this is amazing, so stick with me! (I know I'm not doing this justice, but this was such a powerful realization for me that I had to share it!)
"Could deity feel abandoned?"
"You are God, Jesus! You couldn't be abandoned. You couldn't be left alone. You couldn't be deserted in your most painful moment. Abandonment. That is the punishment for a criminal. Abandonment. That is the suffering borne by the most evil. Abandonment. That's for the vile - not for you. Not you, the King of kings..."

"Behold the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world."

"Wait a minute. 'To take away the sins...' I'd never thought about those words. I'd read them but never thought about them. I thought you just, I don't know, sent sin away. Banished it. I thought you'd just stood in front of the mountains of our sins and told them to begone."

"I just thought you commanded the evil out. I never noticed that you took it out. It never occurred to me that you actually touched it - or worse still, that it touched you. That must have been a horrible moment. I know what it's like to be touched by sin.....You were the one who found me. I was lonely. I was afraid. Remember?...You see, God, I felt so confused. So desolate. Sin will do that to you. Sin leaves you shipwrecked, orphaned, adrift. Sin leaves you aban--....Oh. Oh my. Is that what happened? You mean sin did the same to you that it did to me? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I didn't understand. You were really alone, weren't you? Your question was real, wasn't it, Jesus? You were really afraid. You really were alone. Just like I was. Only, I deserved it. You didn't."
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After I read this chapter, it all came together for me. I have known the Good Friday and Easter story for as long as I can remember and have truly believed that our sins are forgiven because Jesus died on the cross for us. But I have never thought about how Jesus literally touched / took away / experienced our sins in that way before. I loved how the chapter really dug into that concept and by the end of the chapter, I felt like I had a reawakening of sorts to realize even more how Jesus understands what we go through. I knew it before, but now it is powerfully cemented in my mind. What a friend we have in Jesus...

I am not able to convey how awesome this chapter (and book) was for me. I wanted to share it with you though in hopes that you might think about Easter (and Good Friday) in a different way. There is so much sin in this world and we do sinful things each day. We need to repent for our sins and trust in the hope of being saved and living eternally with God in heaven.

What an amazing hope. It is so grand, it is hard to comprehend. But that's what faith is.

Jesus Christ is risen today!