What came first, the Easter or the (marshmallow) Eggs?

So it's Easter Sunday.  Most churches will be jam-packed, families will get together, Walgreen's, Rite Aid and CVS will be clearing out the "seasonal aisle" of candy and bunnies to fill it up with flip-flops, sunscreen and patriotic beach and picninc paraphernalia.  There's playoff hockey and basketball, the 2011 baseball and golf seasons are in "full swing".  Ha!  Full Swing, baseball and golf; I kill myself.

Just another Sunday, it seems.  It's too bad.  When I was a kid, some 40+ years ago, pretty much nothing but churches and hotels were open on Easter Sunday.  Heck, remember when banks, stores and shops would close down between Noon and 3:00 PM on Good Friday?  There was something special going on; something that consisted of more than the every day routine, more outwardly focussed versus the self-centered society we've grown into.

Easter has become over the years just another sales tool for marketeers "get your Easter outfits at...."  It has become a chicken-clucking bunny candy commercial, a pastel-fashion advertising fiesta, another Sunday in the rotation of some 52 each year.  Kids soccer games, hockey games, baseball games and the like have overshadowed the sacrifice of about 90 minutes of our time to give thanks.  And, hey!  I realize not everyone is Christian, I get it.  But of those of us who SAY we believe in God, many of us find it hard to commit to excercising our faith on a daily basis.  I find it hard, sometimes, too.  Everyday life is so often in direct opposition to the direction God would have us take that we all stumble.

Today, though, this Easter Sunday, perhaps some reflection is due.  You know, many Christians make fun of the "C and E ers"; those people who show up at church at Christmas and Easter.  My step-dad might have coined the term.  He's the first one I ever heard use it.  But Easter and Christmas offerings sometimes are the big times when missions funding can be completed; when the church can provide more outreach to more people, fix their own leaky roofs and update the facilities.  So I say, "Hooray for the C and E ers."  Thanks for coming.  God loves you every day and is thankful you came today.

Now, there is the "just like any another Sunday" thing.  See, I don't care how good you are (or think you are), you and I are human.  We've done things differently than God would choose us to do, call it sin, call it doing your own thing instead of God's, you label it.  Because we do our own thing, we become splashed with the mud of our own desires, we're kind of soiled.  Lets' describe it as following:

Imagine, for example, if everything I did in life that was opposite of God's desire was gasoline.  Imagine every time I went away from God, gasoline was splashed on me.  One day, I die, and I have to stand in front of a HOLY God.  Now, quick definition of Holy....Above everything, perfect, set apart from all other things...See, God is Holy. Let's make this a bit of a physics lesson, now. 

Imagine further that God is a burning fire.  You, the gasoline soaked person, comes to stand before God for judgement.  Before you can even get to Him, the fumes of the gasoline ignite, destroying you.  Even as it is physically impossible for a gasoline-soaked rag to exsist in the presence of a raging fire, so it is impossible for us with our "sins" hanging on us to stand before a Holy God.  It is physically impossible. Its not so much God WANTS us to perish, it is just physics. 

Now, Easter.  Jesus is God's only son, born of a virgin, one with the Father since the beginning of everything.  Jesus is actually the Word of God made flesh.  So, this flesh-covered Word of God comes to show us how to live perfectly.  As a man, he is vulnerable to everything that we can be tested, tempted or tortured by.  As God, He can avoid making a human's pitfalls.

Jesus lives this sinless life, always doing the will of the Father.  Then, he is arrested because the religious leaders don't like him horning in on their deal.  He's handed over to the Romans in charge of pretty much the whole known world at that time.  Then, he's beaten; this not to show how cruel Romans are, but to show what God's punishment on a sinner (that's me andyou) would be.

Jesus is then crucified; this a horrible, horrible death.  You can google "crucified". But, see, Jesus died as a murderer, thief or a  rapist would.  He died as a sexual deviant, a cheater, a liar would've died.  He, this perfect one, took on the offenses of everyone from the beginning of man and for everyone since then and took the punishment God would hand out in judgement, so we won't have to.

Jesus went to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday knowing that Good Friday was going to be anything but good for him.  But it was good for us.  He willingly took the punishment for my sins on that cross, willingly giving up his life for me.  Then, he took His life back, re-animating himself in a great victory over death, the same victory I can have, and so can you.

See, if you can trust in Jesus, you can cover yourself with Christ.  Then, when your days here are over, you can stand before God even in your gasoline-drenched clothes, because Jesus is covering everything you did opposite the Father's will.  And when God looks down on you, this consuming fire, He is looking at you, but sees His Son.  Easter is the day we celebrate.  WE celebrate because as we trust in Jesus, and use His strength to avoid those "sinful" pitfalls, God only sees His only son when He looks at us.  Cover yourself with Christ today.  Happy Easter.