Resurrection

The Cross at Easter

April 14, 2022 by Nancy 8 Comments

Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).

Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

John 19:17-18

In a sense, the entire Christian life is a series of steps closer and closer to the Cross of Calvary—with each step an arrival. Only as we draw close in prayer and meditation to the truth of what Christ did for us by willingly dying on that cross can we realize the enormity of the gift God gave us. For many, that journey is a lifelong process.

We can see the love Christ displayed on the cross even from a distance, where we may have stood terrified and huddled together under some tree on that dark day of crucifixion. We see the love for His mother as He asked the Apostle John to care for her once He was gone. We see the love for the believing thief on the cross next to Him as He promised, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). We see His love for every man and woman created by His Father throughout history and beyond as He made the ultimate sacrifice for mankind. His sacrifice expressed His love for you and for me.

What do we see as we draw closer? That Jesus didn’t just pay the price for our sin, rather He took on all the sin of the world so that nobody anywhere would have to suffer eternal consequences for being less than perfect. When John the Baptist first saw Jesus on the shore of the Jordan River he said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Believe. Come to the cross, and your sin, past, present and future, is gone. Not rationalized or sugar-coated in some way. Gone. As is the guilt of that sin. You are completely forgiven.

One step closer and we see the abject humility of the one who is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. We see His wounds and the blood flowing down.

He lowered Himself to the very pit of hell—separation from God—so that we might go higher than we could ever go on our own. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

The Bible promises that if we also humble ourselves in the eyes of the Lord, He will lift us up. Are you there at the foot of the cross? There’s no better time than this Easter to take that journey. Fall to your knees in humility and worship the One whose resurrection from the dead we celebrate on Easter Sunday. Accept His unconditional forgiveness. You are welcome at the foot of the cross.

Excerpted from The Hope of Glory, Volume Two, Lesson 56.

Sharing the Good News

April 8, 2020 by Nancy 8 Comments

Often when I ask assisted living residents for prayer requests I hear longings for physical healing. “I would just like to get out of this wheelchair and walk again,” one might say, or “For my back to heal so I can get around without this walker.” But truthfully, wheelchairs and walkers may be a part of their reality as long as they tarry on this earth.

So how can we encourage elders we know to look beyond their physical limitations to see the opportunities they still have to move through the world making a difference? Especially now during their increased isolation due to the pandemic? At Easter we can encourage those who believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the promise of eternal life for those who believe, to share this Good News with others.

I love the stories in the Bible of women running with good news. The Samaritan woman at the well ran back to her village after encountering Jesus. John 4:28 states: Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

And of course there’s Mary Magdalene that first Easter morning. She, too, encounters Jesus, but she doesn’t recognize him at first. John 20:15-16 reads: “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabonni!” (which means Teacher).

Jesus tells Mary Magdalene to go and tell the others that He has risen, and will soon be returning to His father in heaven. John 20:18 tells us: Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” Surely she ran as fast as her sandaled feet could carry her.

Maybe the older people we know can no longer run to deliver good news, but they can still deliver it. Encourage those who believe to share what they know, and to explain who the risen Lord is to them, with others this Easter. Help them to see beyond their physical limitations to the amazing life-giving force that is still within them. Encourage them to figuratively leave their wheelchairs and walkers behind and “run” with the Good News of Easter!

Revised from an article first published in Pikes Peak Senior News, Spring 2020.

An Easter People

March 27, 2018 by Nancy 16 Comments

One of my favorite quotes is from St. Augustine and reads, “We are an Easter people and alleluia is our song!” I love it because it speaks not only to the joy we can have when celebrating Resurrection Sunday, but also to the abundant life that those who believe in the risen Lord can have all year long.

We are an Easter people when we count our blessings and realize we can never get to the end of the list. Alleluia!

We are an Easter people when we gather together and praise the Lord. Alleluia!

We are an Easter people when we open God’s Word to see what encouragement, correction or advice He has for us each day. So we lift up our alleluias before we intervene in prayer for people we love.

We are also an Easter people when we get bad news about a friend or loved one’s diagnosis, or a scary report from our own doctor. Even through our fears we can sing alleluia because of Jesus’ promise in John 16:33: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

We are an Easter people when we grieve. A parent, spouse, sibling, or child dies, and we wonder how we will get through the next few days and the rest of our lives. How will we even be able to speak at the memorial service if that is required of us? Then we remember the Lord promised in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” We experience that grace descending upon us to comfort us, strengthen us, and be the wind beneath our wings. And so somehow we still sing alleluia—even with a lump in our throats.

Yes, Easter people grieve, but not like those who have no hope because we have the promise of eternal life. Jesus said in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Alleluia indeed!

If you aren’t yet one of the Easter people, could this be the Easter that you explore who Jesus is and become one? It’s so easy. Simply believe that Jesus is the Son of God, acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of a Savior (as are we all), and ask the risen Lord to forgive you and come into your heart. When you do, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit will be yours immediately, and a permanent song of alleluia will begin to echo in your soul.

As C.S. Lewis said, Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. (Jesus didn’t leave the “good guy” option open to us.) If this is the first Easter you proclaim him Lord, it will be a wonderful celebration for you here—and the angels will celebrate in heaven, too!

“A Christian should be an alleluia from head to foot,” St. Augustine also said. Christians don’t get everything right. We need forgiveness as much as anyone. And grace. And mercy. But no matter what, “We are an Easter people, and alleluia is our song!”

Blessed by Bunnies

April 13, 2017 by Nancy 15 Comments

Since the time I was a very little girl watching them scamper around our grassy yard in East Tennessee, stopping only to munch on clover stems, I have loved those “wascally wabbits” also known as bunnies. In junior high school I actually raised rabbits, showing them in the Tennessee State Fair. I even served briefly as secretary of the Smoky Mountain Rabbit Breeders Association!

As Easter approaches our grandchildren know that the bunnies burrowed in storage bins most of the year will soon be hopping into position all around our house—joining the year-round bunnies on display. We have bunny bands, bunny families, and even an Easter egg tree with bunny ornaments. Bunnies, bunnies everywhere!

Of course, as a follower of Jesus Christ, I know that Easter is only about His glorious Resurrection. It’s about how He came to earth to close the gap between us and His Heavenly Father. It’s about how believers can exchange a life of sin for an eternal life with God! I know all that to be true, and I’m grateful to my soul for the true meaning of Easter. I would never begin to idolize or worship the Easter Bunny, but I’m hoping it’s OK to adore God’s fuzzy creatures that dart across the path in front of me on my walks, stopping just long enough to twitch an ear or wiggle a nose in my direction.

I’ve learned a lot from bunnies—including the facts of life after I ran to my grandmother crying, “one of my rabbits is playing too rough with the other one!” In my book Simply the Savior, I wrote about learning to abide by watching the little rabbit that lived in an overgrown juniper at the end of our driveway. Every morning when I opened the drapes to look out she would be nibbling dew-covered grass. But if the golden retriever next door came galloping by, or the wind and rain came up, the little rabbit would quickly retreat to her bush where she was safe. Seeing her abide in the bush helped me understand how Jesus wants us to abide in Him (John 15:4).

Many authors have personified bunnies. I decorated my grandchild nursery in prints and fabric depicting Beatrix Potter’s beloved Peter Rabbit and his friends. One year I read the novel Watership Down, a fictitious account of life in a rabbit warren, while riding a train through the British countryside. Gazing out the window I couldn’t help but fantasize that the bunnies I was reading about were out there somewhere.

Yet bunnies are just charming, sometimes aggravating (why do they eat just one bite of each ripe strawberry?) creatures. I believe God made them in part for our pleasure, so let it be to His glory that we enjoy them at Easter.

Which leads me to wonder if bunnies could have been present at the Cross. When the ground shook and the sky turned darker than dark, did they scurry under a rosemary bush for protection? Maybe they also watched from a distance that bright, early morning of the third day as the women ran to the tomb only to find it empty. We can only imagine…and be blessed.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
–Cecil F. Alexander

The Easter Cactus

March 23, 2016 by Nancy 14 Comments

My Christmas cactus is blooming for Easter this year! The botanical explanation may be that we moved to a new house and it’s reacting to different light exposure. But a more sacred reason comes to mind whenever I gaze its way.

How appropriate that a Christmas cactus would bloom at Easter to remind us that the two holy celebrations are intrinsically connected…inseparable in fact. For Christians, Christmas and Easter only exist because of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who dwelled among us. Had He not come to earth, we would have no resurrection to celebrate. Had He not given Himself to die on the cross, we would have no reason to acknowledge His arrival. Without Easter, Christmas is just a materialistic season of overspending and overeating. Without Christmas, Easter is just an extravagant brunch with a lot of candy and brightly colored eggs. One loses all meaning without the other.

Is there value in gathering together with friends and family over the Christmas season to exchange gifts and restore relationships? Of course there is. Is there value in rejoicing in the arrival of spring and celebrating all that’s fresh and new with fluffy chicks and rabbits? Of course there is.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to decorate for Christmas. I also love rabbits, and have decorative ones all over my house at Easter time. The danger is in letting all the trappings of either holiday obscure the message that can transform us not twice a year, but each day and forever.

Nowhere is that message more clearly stated than in God’s Word and by Jesus Himself. In John 3:16-17 Jesus taught, “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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Always clear about His mission, Jesus comforted his grieving friend Martha by saying, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lies and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

He was sent in love. He died in love. He was resurrected and lives forever. And because He lives, so do those who believe in Him. It’s as simple as that. Jesus Christ always was and always will be. Christmas and Easter are merely the bookends of His sinless earthly life, but to celebrate one without the other makes no sense at all.

My Christmas cactus is so grateful for life that it just had to bloom this Easter! May the same be said of us. Have a joyful Easter—and look for opportunities to bloom!

Women Running

March 30, 2013 by Nancy 10 Comments

Two accounts in the Gospel of John of women running to share good news always bring tears to my eyes—and leave me breathless. The first is when Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman, and the second is when He reveals himself to Mary Magdalene on that first Easter morning.

You may know the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman—how He takes an undesirable route on a journey from Galilee in the north of Israel to Jerusalem in the south just to make sure He meets up with her. She is a woman scorned. Having survived five bad marriages, she is now living with a man she didn’t bother to marry. She goes to gather water at the well in the heat of the day in order to avoid giving the other women in the village another opportunity to gossip about her. Then she “just happens” to run into Jesus.

Reading the full account in John 4:7-29 changes lives today just as the encounter with Jesus changed hers that day so long ago. For Jesus doesn’t condemn her, He simply lets her know that He knows all about her, and cares about her anyway. He discusses theology with her, explains how He is the Source of living water, and then—to this most unlikely of confidantes—reveals that He is the Messiah. John 4:28 states what happens next: Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

Ken Gire, in his wonderful book Intimate Moments with the Savior, describes the scene like this: “In that intimate moment of perception, she leaves to tell this good news to the city that has both shared her and shunned her. Behind, left in the sand, is her empty water jar. Stretching before her is a whole new life. And with her heart overflowing with living water she starts to run. Slowly at first. Then as fast as her new legs will take her. “

The second encounter that takes my breath away is found in John 20:10-18. Remember Mary Magdalene? She’s the woman Jesus saved from seven demons. A loyal follower, she stands by Mary, the mother of Jesus, throughout his crucifixion. In her complete devotion, she is last at the cross, first at the tomb. How horrified she is to find the stone rolled away, and the tomb empty! First she runs to tell the disciples what she discovered, then she runs back with them to the tomb. They leave, but she stays.

And we know what happens next. She, too, encounters a man. John 20:15-16 reads: “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabonni!” (which means Teacher).

I can only imagine how tired she is after crying for two days, not sleeping, and running to the tomb not just once on that first Easter morning, but twice! Yet I’m sure that once she hears the greatest news of all, she doesn’t just saunter into town to tell the others. She runs—her sandals pounding the dirt path as she holds onto her head covering with one hand and wipes away tears with the other.

This Easter, may you also have an intimate encounter with Jesus. May you see Him for who He truly is—then run as fast as you can to tell someone the good news! Have a blessed, joyful Easter.