An Easter message…

The world feels so chaotic right now.

Earthquakes, high tariffs, celebrities in space, cars being burned to prove a point (I thought we were trying to save the earth, but that’s a topic for another day).

Coincidentally, or maybe even more serendipitously, I joined a women’s Bible study earlier this year focused on the Book of Mark. In the midst of joining the study, I started a new job and shifted from a group study to an individual study of the book. The last several weeks have been touch and go as I’ve figured out my new routine and quiet time but somehow, just somehow, my reading of Jesus’ final days on earth before His resurrection happened to fall on Holy Week.

In the midst of my broken world, I’ve found so much hope in Jesus’ life, in the sacrifice He made, and in the humanity of what that last week must have felt like for Him.

I’ve also felt frustrated, and a little annoyed, with disciples like Peter and Judas, and the scribes and leaders who just didn’t get it. Jesus was right there in front of you! The hope and light of the world was right there and you just didn’t get it.

I’m a visual reader so as I’ve been in this study, I’ve pictured myself right in the thick of it, and have questioned:

How would I have responded? If I would have been right there, with Jesus right in front of me, would I have believed who He said He was?

It’s easy to want to say, “YES! Of course, I would have!”

But I know how it ends. I have the Bible in front of me with the entire story laid out right before my very eyes.

The disciples didn’t, the scribes didn’t.

As they experienced what we know as Holy Week, what must that have been like?

I imagine there was confusion and heart-wrenching grief mixed in with simultaneous joy and shock on that third day we look forward to celebrating annually.

But here’s the thing.

Easter is so much more than the dresses we’ve purchased (calling out myself over here). It’s about more than the Easter baskets and a fluffy bunny.

This Easter, can I encourage us to look straight to the cross and feel the significant grief at the sacrifice Jesus made for you and for me AND the immense joy at His rising? At the fact that we worship not a dead but a risen Savior?

Put yourself in the very place of the disciples, of the scribes, of the average Joes of the day.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ then proved everything that came before Jesus. What a sight that must have been!

The resurrection of Jesus Christ now, continues to prove who is sovereign over us. Not the news of the day, the latest trend, or newest show.

No, in everything and anything, Jesus Christ is alive and because of Him we have all the hope, all the safety, and all we could ever need in a chaotic world.

Happy Easter, friends. He is truly risen.