Pastor's Note

Lessons from Wuhan -- Remember That Easter We All Met Online? -- April 12, 2020

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One night as Easter approached during my senior year at Mizzou, Sam stormed into my room and got right in my face. He was a Jewish kid who was pretty tired of hearing about Jesus from the growing number of guys on our floor who had come to faith. Some of them had “One Way” posters on their walls with an index finger pointing up. Not Sam. He had a poster that read: “No Way” …with a different finger displayed. So there we stood, nose to nose. No social distancing. And he angrily asked, “Do you believe the Jews killed Christ?” He and his family had been branded Christ-killers more than a few times. Ever have that assurance that the Holy Spirit was whispering in your ear? I quietly responded: “Yes, Sam. The Jews back then killed Jesus. And the Romans killed Jesus. And, if I had been there, Sam, I would have killed Jesus, too.” His accusing finger was still in the air, ready to poke me in the chest. But he was disarmed. He murmured: “That’s a good answer.” And then he walked out of my room.

John Stott put it this way: “Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.” The sacred symbol of our faith is the cross, an instrument of torture and death. That would be quite unexpected except that we’ve had a few thousand years to process the irony of it becoming our reminder of deliverance from sin and the joy of sins forgiven and the only path to life everlasting. Let us remember, as we celebrate so uncharacteristically this Easter, that our sins made it necessary for Jesus to become our Perfect Sacrifice. Some of our cherished traditions will have to be put aside this year. Instead of the new life sprouting across our city, we are assaulted with daily box scores of deaths in various parts of our planet. Such things need to push us closer to the foot of the cross, forcing us to look beyond the trappings of the season to the heart of it—Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Newness of life purchased by His blood.