The heart of God is love. Everything Jesus did was motivated by love. His death on the cross was his supreme gift of love to us. If you hear nothing else today, I want you to hear this: God is love, and he loves you. God sees you through the eyes of love. God loves you with an everlasting love that will never fail you.
The cross is a symbol of love because Jesus’ death on the cross was a gift of love. But this love story does not end with his death. That is because death could not contain Jesus, and he rose from the grave, triumphant over sin and death. That’s why we celebrate Easter, and why it is a day of great joy for all Christians.
Jesus’ death on the cross was not tragic. Instead, it was a gift of love. It’s a gift of love because it is motivated by the pure love of God—a love that is greater than any love we can even comprehend.
The purpose of Jesus’ death on the cross was to save us from sin and death. Sin is our human condition—we’re all sinners, and most of us don’t need to be convinced of that. We know we are sinners. Furthermore, death is our human inevitability—we all know that some day we will die. But Jesus conquered both sin and death when he died on the cross for our sins and rose from the grave, triumphant over death. That is his gift of love to us.
Jesus invites us into a relationship with himself. He offers us forgiveness of our sin and life in him that is for all eternity. All of this is because of his great love for us. The Easter message is that we have a great big God with a great big heart of love, and that love is for us!
When Jesus died on the cross, his followers were confused and afraid. They were shamed by the ugliness of his death on the cross. They didn’t know what to think. They had truly believed that Jesus was the Son of God. Now, everything was so confusing. All they knew was that their beloved Jesus was dead, and they were heartbroken and lost.
So on early on that Sunday morning, the women who had been his followers went to the tomb, hoping they might at least be able to anoint his body with spices out of love and respect, as was their tradition.
I’m reading the account of the resurrection of Jesus from Matthew 28.
1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
5 The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into
8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to
It’s pretty hard for us to even imagine what might have been going on in the minds and hearts of Jesus’ followers when they discovered that he had risen from the dead. We know they were excited—as it says, “afraid yet filled with joy.” They had seen him with their eyes and heard him speak with their ears. The saw him die on the cross and be buried—yet now he was alive.
They were the first witnesses of the greatest miracle of all time—the resurrection of Jesus. For them, it was life changing.
But for us, living almost two thousand years later, sometimes it’s difficult to see why this historical event matters to us.
It matters because we worship a God who is alive, who is real, and who loves us.
We do not worship a god who is an invention of human minds. We worship a God who has revealed himself to us. The Bible is the record of God’s revelation of himself to humankind. We don’t sit around inventing God in our minds, trying to create a God who meets our specifications. Instead, we worship the God who has revealed himself to us through scripture, and ultimately through Jesus Christ.
Jesus was a real man with real flesh and blood. Jesus was also God. He was fully human and fully God. He came into the world, not to judge us, but so that we could know and understand God’s love for us.
In everything he did, Jesus expressed an amazing vulnerability. He was born into a family that had little or no wealth. Somehow, God trusted this little family to raise Jesus and protect him. Jesus didn’t get special treatment. He grew up just like any other kid. He had to learn to read and do math and keep from getting beat up by the bullies in his neighborhood. Like other kids, he probably got sick. He was just as real as you and me. Yet he was also God. This is always a challenge us to wrap our minds around, isn’t it?
There is no getting around the fact that Easter challenges us. I am asking you to believe that God entered human history as a baby, grew up in a particular time and a particular place. He taught the people and worked miracles. He died on the cross, and then he arose from the grave and finally ascended into heaven, where he is alive today.
Yes, it is a challenge to believe. But if Jesus was not amazing beyond our comprehension, would he be truly God? I don’t know about you, but if I am going to put my trust in God, then God has to be amazing and infinite, beyond my wildest imagination! That is the God I know and worship.
The God we worship is so great, so powerful, and so shocking that we are in awe. He is so pure and so good that we know we are not fit to be in his presence. Yet he is also the God of infinite love and compassion. And he loves you and me. He cares about you and me. He knows your name, and he knows my name. The Bible says he knows how many hairs are on your head—which is to say that he knows you inside and out. He knows you and me better than we know ourselves.
He knows the good about us, and he knows the bad. And in spite of everything, God loves us. Earlier in the service we read from Romans 5: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. (That, by the way is us. We are the ungodly, whether or not we want to admit it.) Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God doesn’t wait for us to shape up before he loves us. He loves us exactly as we are, right now. That’s the good news about God. God’s not mad at us! He loves us. He knows full well that we are sinners, and he loves us anyway.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” And the next verse tells us “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Sometimes, we have the concept that God is angry with us because we are sinners. That’s just wrong. It’s true the Bible speaks of God’s anger. But God’s anger is directed at the sin, not the sinner. He has compassion on the sinner, but he hates the sin. That is because God understands the destructive nature of sin in our lives. He knows the crippling effect sin has on us. God wants us to be free from the bondage of sin because he loves us.
God is love. And Jesus is the expression of God’s love in human form. God always loved us, but Jesus came in human form in order to be the visible expression of God’s love.
What does all of this mean to us? When Jesus died on the cross, he became the sacrifice for our sins. Before Jesus, the Jewish priests used to sacrifice an unblemished lamb in order to atone for the sins of the people. We don’t use the word “atone” or “atonement” very often. To atone is to set things right, and in this case, it means to set things right with God.
We no longer need to offer sacrifices before God in order to atone for our sins. We don’t even need to do any special good works in order to earn God’s favor. When Jesus died on the cross, it was to forgive our sins, and he did it all. His death was sufficient for all the sins of all people for all time. And that includes you and me.
Our part is simply to receive this gift that Jesus has already given us. Our part is to believe and to accept.
Maybe you’re thinking, “Yes, but the problem is that I’m really not sure I believe.” Maybe it’s just not that easy for you to believe and to accept. Some people really struggle with faith. There is a story in the Bible about a man who wanted Jesus to heal his son, but he had the same problem. He desperately wanted Jesus to heal his son, but he couldn’t quite believe that it was possible. So he said to Jesus, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)
I think that’s a pretty good prayer--"I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" If unbelief is a problem for you, either with regard to salvation or in any other aspect of life where you need the healing touch of Jesus, go ahead and pray this short prayer: "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
It can be a way of overcoming inertia in your faith. When we feel stuck in a certain place, it can be amazingly effective to take a tiny little step in the right direction. Maybe your faith feels pretty small, and you don’t feel like you can really take a big step right now. Take a little one, instead. Even in your unbelief or your half-belief, turn yourself towards God rather than away from him. Take that small step towards God, and he will take care of the rest.
As you take that small step of faith, God is already reaching out to you to support you and encourage you. As you begin to experience God’s hand in your life even in the smallest way, your faith will grow. You begin with the small step, and as you begin to walk with God, you experience his presence. You feel his love. You start to realize that Jesus really is your friend. That’s how faith grows.
For most people, great faith does not happen overnight. It’s a process. And the best thing you can do is take the smallest step that is before you. If you really want to believe, but it seems difficult, just say what that father said to Jesus, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
God’s love is real and it is abundant. And it is for you. He knows your name. He loves you. That’s why Jesus died—he did it for you.
Jesus arose from the grave because he is a mighty and powerful God, and the powers of sin and darkness and death have no power over him. He is our God and God is love.
Prayer: God, you are great and mighty and powerful. But most of all, you are love. Thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross so that our sins might be forgiven and for rising from the dead, triumphant over sin and death, so that we might spend eternity with you in heaven. Thank you for loving us, just as we are, and calling us to come to you. Help us to respond to your loving call. You are our God and our King, and we praise you, God of grace and love.
Alleluia! Amen
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