It Is Finished

Happy Easter!

I love this holiday because it causes me to consider the resurrection in a way I don't the rest of the year.  Yes, Jesus' death and resurrection are central to the Christian faith and so are central to daily life and thought, but the 'holidays' always seem to make things more meaningful, make thoughts more potent, make love deeper felt.  And  that is what I feel this Easter.  Above all the LOVE of Christ!  To choose to leave paradise and come to Earth.  To leave the host of angels and live among the fallen.  To suspend eternal existence and die a brutal, shameful, torturous death.  To live a sin-less life in our fallen world and die with the weight of EVERY sin (ever) upon His shoulders (can you imagine what He saw?  what He felt?).  And all this to conquer death!  To rise on the third day and PROVE that He is the Power of powers, Lord of lords, King of kings, above all others!  Oh, what love.

I began thinking over the past few days in reflection, what must it have been like the day after Christ death?  Can you imagine what the disciples must have been feeling?  What Mary, His mother, must have been feeling?  To lose a friend, teacher, brother, son...and to watch His death be so painful...and to realize the next morning that He was gone!  Do you think they even remembered that He said He would "rise again on the third day?"  Or, were they so struck. so taken with grief that they had no thoughts other than "is this a dream?"

Out of this death, this resurrection, this love comes a call to all believers.  A call to action!  I believe that when Jesus cried out "It is finished" the battle was won!  We are victorious!  BUT...There are still wars to be fought...AND if we fight with the RESURRECTED Jesus on our side, who can stop us!?!  "It is finished" should be our battle cry!  It should spur us on to fight harder and win more should to Christ!  To advance and further the Kingdom of God!  To be His hands and feet!  A love like His deserves an active response.  The grief of losing Him should make GAINING Him the greatest moment of our lives!  He proved His Deity, He proved His love, He awaits our response.  "It is finished" is only the beginning!