March 25, 2013
The miracle of Easter is that because Jesus didn’t remain in the grave, we don’t have to either. We don’t have to suffer death, the payment for our sins in hell, or eternal separation from God. Jesus took that payment for us, and then rose in new life. And His new life can be inside us, giving us hope and peace, as we are filled with His love. He arose! And as a result, we were also born anew. Hallelujah!—David Brandt Berg
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Because Jesus was not claimed by death, not left in Hell, we also can escape death, and the awful feeling that we’ve done too many bad things, that there’s no way things can now turn out good for us. In a word, Easter gives us hope.
We can fly like a beautiful eagle or a peaceful dove, arching high over the confines of life and our own selves. We can leave behind the torture of our own failures, our own inadequacies, all that’s within us that holds us back. We can soar into the dreams of our hearts, making reality out of what some call illusion. We can aim for Heaven’s goals and, with God’s help, make it to heights unknown.
Because of Easter, the hope of man is no longer limited to the realm of human possibility. Jesus died and then rose from the dead, so anything that He can do is now possible for us, too. We only have to look into His eyes and believe, and the miracle of Easter can be ours too.—Karen Bradford
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Let’s proclaim that we celebrate a living Savior, not a dead hero!—A living Savior, who was born on earth that He might die in order to rise again to rescue us from the evil kingdom of sin, death, fear, and loneliness. Let’s reach out to others with love and with broken hearts. Let’s try to feel their pain, their frustration, their despair. Try to see their darkness, their bondage, and their torment. Try to imagine their sorrow, their emptiness, their insecurity! And with all our hearts, let’s reach out with love to save and heal them.
As His Father sent Him, so He sends us. He’s called us to be Jesus’ hands, His feet, His eyes, His lips. To bind up the brokenhearted; comfort those that mourn; free the captives; cast out devils; feed the hungry with food that will last them forever; raise those who are dead in trespasses and sins; heal the sick in body and spirit; cleanse the lepers, the rejected, the alienated, the ostracized; give new sight to the blind by giving them Jesus the light; preach the Gospel to the poor; loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free. To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Freely you have received, freely give.1
Let’s make each day a witnessing celebration of Jesus’ birth, His death, and His resurrection which promises new life for all!—Maria Fontaine
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Jesus died of a broken heart. What broke His heart was not our sins. He knew that we were going to be saved and be forgiven. What broke His heart was thinking that God could turn His back on Him. And at that time, feeling like the lost sinner, He went through an experience which, thank God, we will never have to go through; not just crucifixion, not just the agony of the body, but the agony of mind and heart and spirit, feeling that God had actually deserted Him. “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”2 Had God forsaken Him? Yes, momentarily, that He might die the death of a sinner, without God.
Jesus loved us enough to give His own life for us and take the punishment of our sins upon Himself on that cross, so that we could be forgiven and be saved! Such love!—David Brandt Berg
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I understand the trying of men's hearts, the depths of despair, of discouragement, and of desperation. I understand the depth of forsaking, for first I had to forsake My Father to go to earth, and then I had to forsake those that I loved so dearly on earth to return to My Father.
I understand the depth of pain and affliction, for I screamed out in pain as the nails pierced My hands and My feet. I understand the feeling of being forsaken by those who loved Me, even My own Father, and thus I cried out, “My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
I understand the depth of fear—fear of facing that which is ahead for the pain and the sorrow that it shall bring. And so I said, “Father, let this cup pass from Me!”
I understand the depth of the feeling of loss, for those who loved Me most forsook Me as I was carried away into captivity. I know the depth of hurt to see one that you love betray you, even as Judas betrayed Me with a kiss.
Though My Father did not let this cup pass from Me, and though I saw My loved ones flee from My side in time of trouble and this one that I loved betray Me, and though the nails pierced My hands and My feet, and though I was beaten with many stripes, and though I felt as if My Father had forsaken Me, and though I had to pass through the deepest of Jordans—the Jordan of death—yet it all brought about such great victory, such great renewal, such great salvation!
For though it looked like a defeat for Me to be whipped and to be scourged, to be crowned with thorns, to be nailed to the cross, yet My Father kept Me and brought Me forth in a great resurrection that changed the course of history and changed all eternity!
When life looks dark and you cannot see, know that I have My arms around you. I ask you to trust Me in the depths, trust Me in your heartache, trust Me in your forsaking, for you, too, shall have a glorious resurrection that will far surpass anything that you have known.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
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Let’s not just remember the death of the cross; let’s not always be seeing a Christ on the cross, the suffering and the death and the fear that it generates. We don’t have a Jesus on the cross. He’s left the cross. We have a bare cross. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”3 We don’t have a Christ in the grave. We have a live Jesus living in our hearts.
He rose in victory, joy, liberty, and freedom, never, ever to die again, so that He could redeem us as well and prevent our having to go through it. What a day of rejoicing that must have been when He rose and realized it was all over! He had won the victory; the world was saved. He had accomplished His mission.—David Brandt Berg
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When I was dying on the cross, I felt forsaken. But when I rose from the dead, everything was new, everything was different, all the pain was forgotten. There was no remorse or sorrow, because the anguish of dying was consumed by the joy of My resurrection. The pain of death was swallowed up by victory.
Easter is a holiday celebrating victory, triumph, and overcoming. So think about the good things I have brought your way. Think on the good, the positive. It’s a day to forget any sorrow or pain or discouragement, and to focus on the joyful and the victorious.
Remember the great love I have for you—the love that led Me to give My life for you, and the love that gave Me the power to rise up in new life, also for you.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
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One detail in the Easter story has always intrigued me: Why did Jesus keep the scars from His crucifixion? Presumably He could have had any resurrected body He wanted, and yet He chose one identifiable mainly by scars that could be seen and touched. Why?
I believe the story of Easter would be incomplete without those scars on the hands, the feet, and the side of Jesus. When human beings fantasize, we dream of straight pearly teeth, wrinkle-free skin, and attractive ideal shapes. We dream of an unnatural state: the perfect body. But for Jesus, being confined in a skeleton and human skin was the unnatural state. The scars are, to Him, an emblem of life on our planet, a permanent reminder of those days of confinement and suffering.
I take hope in Jesus’ scars. From the perspective of Heaven, they represent the most horrible event that has ever happened in the history of the universe. Despite that event, though, Easter turned into a joyful memory.
Because of Easter, I can hope that the tears we shed, the blows we receive, the emotional pain, the heartache over lost friends and loved ones, all these will become memories instead of hurts, like Jesus’ scars.
Scars never completely go away, but neither do they hurt any longer. We will have re-created bodies, a re-created Heaven and Earth. We will have a new start, an Easter start.—Phillip Yancey4
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My resurrection life within you is more actual energy than you’ve probably ever realized or utilized. You have the Spirit of My Father which raised Me from the dead dwelling within you, and just as He raised Me from the dead, so can He quicken your earthen frames by His Spirit. That’s one of My wonderful truths and promises I’ve given to you‚ and this resurrection power that is within you through Me has given you the same power to rise above. Claim it as yours.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
Published on Anchor March 2013. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.
Music by Michael Dooley.
1 Matthew 10:8, 11:5; John 20:21; Isaiah 58:6, 61:1,3.
2 Matthew 27:46.
3 1 Corinthians 15:55.
4 The Jesus I Never Knew (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995).
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