Wednesday, April 7, 2004

Open the door to eternal life

Easter means nothing has to remain the same ever again. Easter is the gigantic erasure that wipes away the past with all its mistakes and misfortunes to allow a writing of a whole new beginning. Up until the time of Easter, the entire world was stuck in a senseless cycle of birth, life, death, and birth. We see the vestiges of the cycle in those parts of the earth that experience seasons: spring, summer, fall, winter, and spring again. Even though the cycle appears to be reassuring in one sense, yet the cycle begs the question, “Is that all there is?”

The religious world incorporated something of the reassuring nature of the cycle with its recurring festivals which appear at certain seasonal times of the year. The Hebrew festivals, for instance, are based on the settings of the lunar calendar, naturally recurring yearly.

Some religions are totally cyclic. They believe one lives and dies and perhaps escapes this vicious cycle if he lives good karma during his conscious living.

Even the Hebrew Wisdom writer captures something of this senselessness when he writes, “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. Also the sun rises and the sun sets. And hastening to its place it rises there again” (Ecclesiastes 1:2-5).

Can you imagine the hundreds of thousands of cows, sheep, and goats that were sacrificed in a religious system that only called for more cows, sheep, and goats the next year? A religious system that’s dependent upon a cycle is spiritually bankrupt.

Christianity is not morally bankrupt because we do not depend upon a cyclic religious system. Someone might respond by calling attention to Christianity’s elaborate celebration of the birth of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. It is true that we make much to do over the birth of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus, commonly called Easter, but for different reasons than most would think.

The birth of Jesus Christ was unique in itself. His birth broke time into. Now our calendars are marked by his birth, B.C. and A.D. Jesus was the first great world religious leader who captured the attention of culture, including government, as no one had ever done up to that point. For the first time, someone who talks about the birds and the lilies of the field gets the ears of the heads of state. Consequently, his birth was a breakout birth. He broke away from the rest.

But it was the resurrection that broke the back of the cycle of life, death, and life again. On a Friday morning they hung Jesus out to dry and go away for ever. Friday afternoon they buried him in a stone covered tomb and hoped that would be the last. God had something else in eternity in mind.

But Sunday morning Jesus broke the back of the ceaseless, senseless, hopeless, relentless cycle of birth, life, death, and life again. Through his own life, Jesus defeated death’s part of the cycle, meaning it is birth and life and eternal life.

We Christians join John Donne in his poem Death, Be Not Proud:

“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;

For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.”

More than any other time of the year, Easter allows us Christians the opportunity to proclaim that anyone can break out of the rut, out of the rat-race, out of the maze, out of the spinning wheel, out of the meaninglessness of life and step into the life of God himself with all his purpose and all his meaning.

Easter is an invitation to join God’s life; let God wipe the chalk board of your life clean and then begin to live in his purposes and plans.

If you are already a Christian, make every effort to make it possible for someone else to hear the proclamation of the Gospel. If you are not a Christian, I pray that Easter 2004 will be your door to eternal life.

John Hatcher is pastor of Outreach International Center, 1091 South Jeff Davis Drive, Fayetteville, Georgia 30215. 770-719-0303