Easter, What it's Not About

This Easter weekend most of the sermons preached in churches will recount the story of how Jesus died a brutal death for you and me and then after three days he rose from the dead. His resurrection from the dead means you have eternal life.

But wait, could there be more? What could be more than eternal life you ask? It’s means more than your own personal fire insurance! 

Back up the tape for a moment and ask yourself these questions regarding the Friday before the resurrection of Christ took place.

• What did the death of Jesus on Friday mean to the blind man who regained his sight after the Healer's touch? 
• What did it mean to the woman who had been restored to her place in society after being rendered unclean for twelve years by her unstoppable flow of blood? 
• What did the crucifixion mean to the leper who, undoubtedly desperate for human contact, received that and more during a chance encounter with Jesus? 
• How about little Talitha's family, or Lazarus' family?
• How about the Centurion may have felt to hear that Jesus had died on the cross that day?

Why was it that the religious leaders and political authorities so desperately wanted to kill Jesus? Each lash of the whip, each nail, and every insult hurled at him while He hung on the cross was a simultaneous assault on a generation of people who had finally started to feel loved… and free… and hopeful.  Jesus’ death seemed like another major disappointment for those with no hope. Crushed again.

But Easter Sunday is the subversion of a system that had been stacked against "the least of these." Jesus alive means hope alive! That's the Good News.

Those who proclaimed that Jesus had risen were telling the powerful that despite their attempts to bury hope and equality... despite their efforts to kill the voice of the one who had touched them when no one else would... despite their efforts to entomb the Good News that was being preached to the poor and the radical message of liberty for the captives, the hope of the people would continue to live. They live because Jesus lives.

Easter Sunday means that hope is still brewing, even in the most corrupt systems. The resurrection means that love is still powerful in ways that can often only be explained by invoking the transcendent. Easter means that nothing can stop the will of a downtrodden people who feel driven by a force greater than themselves-- Not the death of one person. Not the death of a religious ideology. Not even the death of a generation.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very glad that I can experience eternal life but Easter Sunday is not about my personal happiness. Celebrate the Good News of Jesus Christ because of what it means to the sick, the outcast, the hungry and the voiceless.

I believe the scripture Jesus quoted now applies to us, The Spirit of the Lord is upon us, for he has anointed us to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent us to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come. (Luke 4:18-19)

Because it’s not about you or me. It’s about God’s love for “the least of these.”