What He Did Easter With

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

I suppose it’s a natural side effect of what we’re all about as a church. We’re designed to be a point of connection between a normal life and the life that may be possible on the other side of Christ. As a result, a lot of our discussion has to do with the “why” of Christianity – as in why it deserves a second (and perhaps more passionate) consideration. However, there are times I find myself wanting to set the “why” discussion aside so we can simply dive into the “what” of Christianity. It’s what this series is all about.

This world view has absolutely taken me by storm over the past 18 years – and every day that storm builds a little. I can’t live, write, speak or get enough of it, and it’s such a potent philosophy that I feel it can more than speak for itself. This Sunday will be one of those Sundays when we set aside the “why” for the “what” – and there is perhaps no better Sunday on which to do it.

The Easter story is stunning when you move beyond a surface appreciation for the details of the story: Judas’ betrayal, Christ’s calm resolve, Peter’s emotional outburst, three hours of agony, the quite collapse of the disciples’ moral followed by that shocking Sunday morning turn of events. And perhaps the most stunning part is not so much what He did in the Easter story but what He did it with. He did it with a normal human life – one not unlike our own. Stunning.

It reminds me of a kind of scene you often see in films like The Bourne Identity. Special agent Jason Bourne is always coming face to face with well equipped and highly trained “bad guys” while having less than ideal resources of his own. In one case, he faces a particularly nasty, knife wielding bad guy with nothing more than a ball point pen. At another place, he does the same thing, this time with nothing more than a tightly rolled magazine. As an audience we find ourselves stunned not so much by what he does (he wins, after all) but we find ourselves more amazed by what he does it with (ball point pens and tightly rolled magazines seem like a poor match for guns and knives).

So what do you think it means that Jesus “did” Easter with nothing more than one normal human life? After all, He was fully God but also fully man and tempted in every way as we are tempted. Yet in that one act over the course of a single weekend, He didn’t just alter history, He altered a whole universe of possibilities for you and I. And He did it with a normal human life – one not unlike our own. What do you think that means? What’s the message within the message? What’s the message to you?

Let’s get into it this Sunday. Join us for a one hour communion service starting with Starbucks at 9.45 (you can visit our website for directions) or tune into the podcast through the week.

I hope to see you there and I hope you bring someone with you.

Chris

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