Pastor's Blog - Easter 2015

There is a lovely old story about a school teacher who asked her class to bring a plastic egg to school the week before Easter, filled with something that reminded them of what Easter is all about. Each member of the class came with their eggs and the teacher took each child’s egg in turn, opened it and made a point of reinforcing the meaning conveyed in each egg.

One child’s egg contained a tiny flower which symbolised the new life that springs forth at Easter. Another one of the children’s eggs contained a lovely picture of Jesus, and the teacher spoke about how Easter was a time when Christians remembered the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, another one contained a very sharp nail, and the teacher told the children how Jesus went to the cross and how He there was punished for the sins of all those who would ever trust in Him so that they would not have to face God’s punishment themselves. Another egg contained a round pebble that represented the stone that was rolled in front of the tomb in which Jesus was laid after His death.

The teacher, however, was particularly struck with the egg of one particular little chap. When it was opened – there was nothing inside and before the teacher could say anything, the little boy shouted out, “it’s full of emptiness – just like the tomb of Jesus.”

Have you ever really considered the facts of the Easter story? Jesus died on a cross and 3 days later he rose from the dead! He conquered the grave and His tomb was empty! Many have tried to prove that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus was a fabricated story or myth and yet when the evidence has been carefully and honestly considered, all attempts have failed. Why? The simple reason is that it is true – the Lord Jesus really did die and rise again from the dead!

If this is true then each one of us surely has to consider Jesus’s claim given in the Bible in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”? To believe in Him, means to accept that you have not kept God’s Law perfectly and that as a result, you can never get to heaven by your own good deeds or accomplishments. Secondly, that Jesus took the punishment that was due to you on himself when he died on the cross.

This was in order to satisfy God’s justice that every sin has to be punished, yet it also clearly demonstrates his love in that he too provides the way for us to be seen as “not guilty” in his sight. That way is Jesus, who says of himself in the Bible, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

I trust that you and your family will have a truly wonderful Easter time.