It is finished!

I usually try to stick to generic, family related posts on my blog. This isn’t because I don’t want to share details of my Christian walk, but that I don’t ever want to type something on the www that may confuse others or inadvertently cause them to stumble. I am constantly humbled and overwhelmed with my ignorance, so I much prefer to take the student’s position.

This Easter has been special for our family. Sure, each year we focus on Jesus, our Lord and Risen King, but this year we have spent a lot of time trying to imagine what it would have felt like from various perspectives;
-What the women would have felt as they watched Christ die. What his mother felt watching her son in excruciating pain. What they felt waiting for the Sabbath to be over so that they could tend to Jesus’ body.
-What the disciples would have felt…they didn’t seem to understand what Jesus had foretold…they must have felt very confused and heartbroken.
- What Pilate would have felt as he washed his hands of the situation.
- What the soldiers felt as they scorned and scoffed and spat on him….and then what they felt as the Creation itself responded to Christs death-…surely this was the Son of God!
- What the thieves either side of him felt. Why was one heart hard, and not the other?
- What the Pharisees felt. Were they smug? Did they feel ‘righteous’? Were they fearful?
- What the average passer-by would have felt as they witnessed his crucifixion.

Trying (however feebly) to think about what these groups of people may have been feeling, has laid Easter on our hearts in a different way this year. Especially when we emotionally realise that we can claim no better behaviour than the worst of his persecutors.

On Easter we traditionally greet each other with ‘Christ is Risen’/’He is Risen indeed!’. We talk a lot about Christ conquering our two greatest enemies- sin & death.
The thing that struck me (finally?) this Easter…(and please forgive me for not being able to articulate this properly)…

Was that I think about the crucifixion and separation from God etc…as the punishment for my sin. I think about Christ’s resurrection as Jesus’ victory over sin & death. I never really thought about the significance of it in the sense of, God raised Jesus from death, signifying that the sacrifice, the payment, was acceptable in His sight. It wasn’t just a great victory, it wasn’t just a fulfilment of prophecy, but in the Father’s eyes, it was an act sufficient to cover all my sin. And yours. I can rest assured knowing that Christ intercedes for me, He advocates my case, and in His resurrection, God has indicated that my penalty has been paid in full. So rather than just thinking ‘my ransom has been paid in full’ because of what Jesus did on the cross…and ‘my ransom has been paid in full’ because Jesus beat sin & death…I am also thinking ‘my ransom has been paid in full’ because God has shown the debt paid, through his raising of Jesus from the dead. (non-sensical? dont worry, its me, not you).

And it only took me 8 years to ‘get’ it. I suppose that I have known this in various ways; I mean, I understood that Christ’s resurrection was symbolic of His victory. I think I had always just assumed that since God knew we would sin (and planned for, and foretold, and sent Jesus), that the payment would be inevitably sufficient. But the clarity of God accepting this sacrifice, really hit home for me finally. To sort of ponder that Jesus could have come, could have been crucified, could have been buried…and God had no obligation to accept this sacrifice and declare it ‘enough’. Maybe if I had grown up in a Christian home, this might be a ‘salvation 101’ deal and people will pity me for my shallow processing of the event upon which our salvation & faith is founded on. But, I figured I would share it anyways, as I wished you all a joyous Easter!

There is no such thing as ‘too unworthy’, no situation that Christ’s sacrifice will not cover. He is bigger than that. And it is finished.