Now What?

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

This past Sunday Christians across the world came together to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The most important miracle to our faith. We spend a week recalling, in vivid detail, Jesus’s journey starting from his triumphal entry and ending with his death, burial, and resurrection. 

In many traditions, Christians break down his journey into what is called the Stations of the Cross. Each station meant to be a point where we rest and reflect on Jesus’s experience and the sacrifice that was made on our behalf. The crucifixion wasn’t a quick experience for Jesus. A mob of angry people didn’t just grab him and murder him. He had to live through a process of being condemned by the people he came to help and betrayed by some of his closest friends.

However, throughout it all, he did it willingly and out of the love he has for you and for me. And it is because if this love that we are now called to live for others. He showed us the ultimate example of sacrificial love. He died once for all so that we can put an end to living for ourselves.

This past weekend we contemplated the events of Jesus’s sacrifice and return. It’s easy to think of that as the end of the story: Jesus died, came back, and now I’m saved. And while that is true it neglects that, as believers, we have been given a calling to live out. This sacrifice of ultimate love should inspire us to share that love with others. We have been given new life through Jesus. We once were lost but now we are found. We know the way to salvation and can help others see it too.

The celebration of Jesus doesn’t need to end just because the chocolate and eggs are gone. We should spend our lives inspired by the work done by Jesus on the cross. He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him [Jesus] who for their sake died and was raised.