An Easter Sermon: Part 1

Due to several complicating factors, my extended family on my Dad's side considered having Easter Sunday church in my aunt's backyard. In an intimidating but flattering request, they asked if I would be willing to give a message. I accepted and put some words together. Due to more last minute complicating factors, we were unable to have said service in the backyard, so I did not deliver the message. Instead, I've decided to post it here. I will post it in two parts, one today and one tomorrow. Thanks for "listening."

Part 1:

Becoming a father was great for me, because I was no longer the center of the world. I knew that going in, and I had prepared myself for it. That wasn’t the difficult part. The difficult part was the fact that I had to explain the world to my daughters. There is so much of the world and human behavior that I don’t understand, that I continue to see this as quite a daunting task. However, I find that I seem to learn more the more that I’m forced to explain.

Easter is a big part of that. This is the first year we’ve really gotten specific regarding Christ’s death and resurrection with Elise. Explaining it to her has been a monumental time for my faith. I’ve lived to see 32 Easter Sundays now, and I’ve heard the events of the crucifixion countless times in my life. I will never say that the story of Christ’s death is boring; however, I had become so used to it that I had lost some of my awe for it. It had become commonplace, routine, or expected. Tragically, the story began to seem like it made sense, that it was logical.

Then I began to discuss the events with Elise. I told her that Jesus died on a cross.

“Why did Jesus have to die, Daddy?”

“Well, to take our punishment.”

“Take our punishment?”

I then explained to her about how we sometimes do things we’re not supposed to do. She could easily relate to that. I explained that when we sin, we deserve to be punished for that sin. Jesus took the punishment for all of our sins.

“All of them?”

“Yes, all of them.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of love!”

And suddenly I saw the events through fresh eyes once more. That is a lot of love. An unfathomable amount of love. He took my punishment, one nail at a time, and hung on a piece of wood with the weight of my sins and my daughter’s sins and your sins upon his shoulders as God the Father turned his back on him because there was no other way.

There is nothing common-sensical about what happened that first Easter weekend. None of that makes sense or is logical. That level of sacrifice, that level of voluntary pain, and that amount of love. It is shocking. It is awe-inspiring. “That’s a lot of love, Daddy!” Yes, Elise, that’s a lot of love.

There’s also nothing logical about that Sunday morning either, about a dead man rising, conquering death, all to prepare a place for us. The same people then who mocked and ridiculed and killed Jesus, the same people now who ignore Him, it is for their opportunity to experience pure eternal joy that motivated Him. To not understand this marvel and the intense, satisfying joy that we are offered because of this, to instead be satisfied with our hopeless attempts of mediocre cheap thrills to fill the void, to fail to be full of awe of what the Ressurrection has done for us is to erase this radical, sacrificial act of love from your life. And it is a dark life indeed to live without this event.