Friday, April 13, 2012

Easter: The Rest of Christmas ...

"For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."  (the Bible: John 3:16)

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."  (the Bible: John 3:17)

"For God SO loved" ... God SO loved.  If God had not loved there would be no Christmas.  Because God loved, though, there IS Christmas, a time to remember and to celebrate His love.  Because God SO loved we have not only the story of the ages, to recount again and again, we have the GIFT of the ages. The one Gift that surpasses all gifts.  The one special Gift that anyone can receive; the Gift that gives joy for a lifetime, and beyond.

"For God so loved the world...".  He did.  He SO loved us that He willingly sent His Son from a perfect place to what had become an imperfect place, to be the most important Gift of all to each of us, imperfect as we are.  God did this knowing the horrible suffering Christ would go through.

God's Christmas Gift wasn't packaged in glossy wrapping paper with a beautiful bow. No, God's gift came into our world giving pain to his earthly mother and, I think, experiencing pain, during the birth process.  I've always thought our babies must be feeling the pain of birth, as we mothers do: being turned and twisted and squeezed through the birth canal. It surely would have been the same with Jesus, Who was "being born" to humanity as human though still, at the same time, fully God.


"For God so loved the world." Christmas.  The Gift: Jesus Christ.  One unique Gift of all gifts. Celebrate it!

But wait!  There is more.  Though we celebrate the greatest Gift of all at Christmas, Easter is truly the REST of Christmas.

Think about it.  Christmas is when we joyfully remember God's Gift to us, that He SO loved us by sending Jesus.  That we might have eternal life".  Easter - the rest of Christmas.  That's how.  Easter. Christmas isn't the total gift ... Easter is.

Jesus was "gifted" to the world, as a baby, through pain - child-birth pain. His pain and Mary's pain. Jesus arrived in our world through pain and Jesus left our world through pain.  Voluntarily.  Because God "so loved the world".  Do we see?  Easter-is-the-rest-of-Christmas.

It was understood from the beginning, with Jesus' earthly birth ... that there would be an Easter one day.  There was.

Luke 24:6 & 7 (the Bible) says so plainly: (6) He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:   (7) The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again."

It happened.  It did.  Jesus' physical, emotional and spiritual pain happened as He was nailed, actually nailed, to that rough wooden cross.  It wasn't pretty.  It wasn't painless.  It was bloody.  It was ugly. It was total suffering.

God sent us Jesus "to save the world through him".  THROUGH Him.  Humanity no longer has to make a sacrifice to God in order to seek forgiveness.  We don't have to offer up a sacrificial chicken or a goat or any animal - we don't need to shed any blood from an animal to repent and be forgiven.  Because Jesus came and shed His blood, once and for all.

God's Gift of the "baby Jesus" also includes the Gift of the adult Jesus, hanging on that bloody, wooden cross.  Willingly.  In horrible pain. Sacrificing Himself for each one of us, so that we no longer have to offer up sacrifices.  We don't have to offer animal sacrifices.  We don't have to sacrifice our own bodies.

No, because Easter is the rest of Christmas.

Easter is the rest of the Gift of all gifts.  Jesus Christ's crucifixion is the rest of God's gift to humanity so that "whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Yes!  Amen!  Alleluia!

Easter: the rest of Christmas.