Easter musings

Holidays are always a little weird for me. I mean, how should I spiritually celebrate them? I often feel pressured to act really spiritual on or around a day like Easter, lest I should defile the day with some careless sin. Or else I try to conjure up an emotional experience, thinking that spiritual holidays should naturally line up with spiritual "mountaintop experiences."

But I think (and the cash value of this is literally less than 2 cents) the important thing to do at a holiday is to slow down and connect with God, in an attitude of thanksgiving. Whatever it is that the particular holiday commemorates, ponder that thing. So on Easter, or around Easter, take time to ponder Christ's sacrifice and resurrection, the love that caused Him to do it, and the power that made it possible. If you can also incorporate other people into this process through fellowship, encouragement, and conversation, then all the better.

In the spirit, then, of meditating on these things, I offer up one cool thought. At the end of a long conversation with His disciples near the end of his life, Jesus said these words:

"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will find tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Jesus here offers His friends two great pillars of strength during life's chaos -- His words and the miraculous, triumphant outcome of His life, death and resurrection. By remembering what the Lord had said to them and realizing the wondrous victory He had accomplished, they could persevere through any trial they might suffer.

But what was this victory over? What was it in the world that Jesus declared He had "overcome"? I'm so pleased with the process of answering this question, that I leave it to you to answer. I will reword it, and add a corollary question:

1. When Jesus said, "I have overcome the world," what thing(s) does he mean that he has overcome?
2. Paul says "we are more than conquerors through [Christ] who loved us." Conquerors of what?

I will give you one answer, just to get you started and to celebrate Easter with you. He overcame, and we now conquer through Him... Death!

Here are some verses that explain and/or celebrate Christ's victory over death and our privelege of overcoming death through Him:

We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him.
Romans 6:9

For since death came through a man, so also the resurrection from the dead comes from a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive... He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
1 Corinthians 15:21-26

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying which is written will come true:
Death has been swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?
1 Corinthians 15:54-55

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who was and is and is to come, the Almighty... I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades."
Revelation 1:8,18

He is risen!

Jon