This year, I’ve heard many people joking about the fact Easter Sunday falls on what we also call April Fool’s Day.
I’ve heard jokes about how the Devil was fooled into thinking he had won some kind of victory when Jesus was crucified, died and was buried. I’ve heard some say they think we Christians are fools for believing the story of the Passion of the Christ.
Think about this story. God stepped down from heaven. He clothed Himself in mortal, fragile, breakable flesh and blood. He entrusted Himself to the womb of Mary and the home and family of a carpenter named Joseph. He grew up in anonymity in a backwater town called Nazareth.
This is God, remember. He didn’t come in mighty power, with a vast army to crush evil people and exercise divine discipline. No, He came to live a life of perfection, which we could not do because we each have this sinful nature within us. He was without sin, however. He lived that life of perfection with no sin of His own for which to pay. So, instead, He offered Himself as the sacrifice given by which all of our sins were atoned for.
He washed our souls clean through the power of forgiveness. He suffered the worst that sinful mankind had to dish out, even enduring death itself. He was sealed up in a tomb for three dark days. He then rose up in new life. Because He lives that new life, He calls us to rise up in new life by faith in Him here in time and in His eternal home to come.
Does it sound too good to be true? Are we just chasing a fairytale? There are many convincing proofs of the life, death and resurrection of a man named Jesus, from Nazareth. Many witnesses, both friendly and adversarial sources from the time, have confirmed that He lived and died, and rose again.
I could offer you many sources of proof. But God doesn’t call us to live new life by proof. He calls us to live new life by faith. Through faith in Christ and faith in the entire Easter story recorded in the Gospels, we have new life today and forever. To ignore such a gift of God, exchanging Christ for bunnies, just seems foolish to me.
Join us for the Easter celebration at 8 and 10:30 a.m. Hosanna Lutheran Church is located at 9601 E. Brown Road.