Easter: Paying the price
A strong sense of fairness seems to be part of the human psyche. I remember my daughter yelling, “It’s not fair” when she was punished for something she thought was all her brother’s fault.
Jesus lived a life devoted to loving and helping others and yet the people turned on Him and even though He had done nothing wrong Jesus was punished. So maybe we should be yelling, “it’s not fair!”
So why did Jesus die?
If I look at the beginning of my Bible I read that when the human race started everything was very good, clean, innocent and without any wrong doing. If I carry on reading the Bible in the next chapter I read that after Satan had tempted Eve wrongdoing entered this world and changed the pure, perfect relationship God enjoyed with people. Christians call this wrongdoing “sin”. From that day on the human race, which includes each one of us, was all messed up and needed to ask forgiveness. God loves people very much but we do stuff that’s wrong and that spoils our friendship with God and with each other.
Sin stains our lives and poisons our friendships both with God and each other. I used to think that if I could just do something good again it would wipe out all the bad mistakes I made but no matter how much good I do I cannot get things back to how it was before sin came into this world. BUT I was wrong. NO matter how hard I try I cannot be perfect.
There is nothing we can do to rid ourselves of the stain of wrongdoing.
Christians believe that Jesus came to take our punishment for our wrong doing so that we did not have to be punished. Even though He had done nothing wrong Jesus was punished instead of us so that we can put things back to how they once were with Jesus.
We each have the choice to say, “Okay God I messed up. I realise that I cannot make things perfect again. I accept that by dying for me YOU make things right.”
Anyone who asks God to forgive them can have a new start. This is the reason why Easter is a celebration rather than a time of mourning Jesus death. That’s why Jesus had to die.
Of course there is more to the story than this – but for that you will have to log on next week for the next thrilling instalment. What happened at Easter time over 2000 years ago is more than just an historical event, saying yes to Jesus can change your life forever.
