Thoughts on Resurrection Day

As we approach Resurrection Day I wanted to leave you with some thoughts for tomorrow:

Remember that just as God called the Hebrews out of their bondage to the Egyptians to come worship Him (Ex 5:1-3) and to be made His people (Ex 6:7) He calls us out of our bondage to worship Him and be His people. Thus the cross is not about us but about God and His work through Christ’s life, death, burial and resurrection to call a people to Himself to worship Him. Let us not be so inwardly focused to forget the true focus is to be on God not us. I fear that all too often Resurrection Day ends up, in reality, being about us and not God.

While the cross is a gruesome thing I think that often we lose sight of how truly horrendous it was when we simply focus on the act of crucifixion. This is not to minimize its painfulness and its humiliation but to say there is much more going on than the torture that is often depicted in movies. Yes it was painful and a disgrace to be crucified but many men died such a painful and humiliating death. Yes, this act is heightened by it being done to the Son of God but we need to see more of what is going on. The true pain and suffering we need to realize was the fact that on the cross Christ took on the sins of His people (1 Ptr 2:21-24); past, present and future. The pain of those sins is so much more than the external pain we so often focus on. This is what we need to see and realize when we think of the cross. It is because of this great sacrifice we can come to God through Christ who was not only the final High Priest (Heb 4:14) but also the final sacrifice(Heb 9:24-26).

As far as celebrating Resurrection Day we need to realize that we in effect are to do this every time we take of the Lord’s Supper. We should have the same desire to remember all that God has done in His Son when we partake of the elements of the Lord’s Supper that we have on Resurrection Day. The Lord’s Supper should remind us that God in sacrificing His Son (Is 53) has allowed us to draw near to Him (Heb 4:16; 7:19; 10:22). As with the various celebrations God instituted in His word they were to be reminders and not the only times to contemplate what God has done. Let his be true of Resurrection Day and for that matter the Lord’s Supper. Let us remember Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for His people daily by lives which are to be lives of worship. Lives that offer up continual worship to Him because of what was done on the cross (Heb 13:15).

I am sure there is more that could be said but these are some thoughts that come to mind on the eve of this year’s Resurrection Day.

“He has Risen”