A few weeks ago, I spent a lot of time stuffing eggs with candy for children to enjoy during my church’s Easter egg hunt and today I found myself voluntarily filling eggs with candy again. Filling generic plastic eggs can be very frustrating when the eggs don’t fit properly together but I was thankful to be reminded of the Easter egg hunt traditions I was a part of as a child. Every Easter, my grandparent would fill up eggs with coins and dollar bills and hide them in the yard for my sisters and I. Abby was too young to get eggs on her own so my pap usually helped her find her eggs so my only competition was my older sister Brandy. She may have been older, smarter, and a faster runner but she was no match for my trickiness. I would shake each egg I picked up in order to discover whether there were small coins, large coins, or dollar bills inside. If my plastic eggs, sounded and felt like dimes and pennies: I dropped it and went for the eggs with dollar bills and quarters. I thought I was a super genius. A rich super genius. It took me a few years to realize that my grandparents waited to see what each of our grand totals were and then added change (or dollar bills) to our piles to make all three of us have equal amounts of Easter money.
As a child, I thought I had mastered the art of Easter egg hunts by discovering what was inside the egg before opening it and as an adult I sometimes think that I can discover what God has planned for my life by putting Him inside a box and never opening it. I know that I have used this analogy before but my repetition of this example is a reflection of my repetition of attempting to put God inside a box. Every ounce of my being wants to fulfill God’s design for my life and be obedient to the plans He has for my life. But sometimes I get too focused on me. I am not saying I choose myself over God; I am saying that I often focus on how I can glorify God instead of how God can glorify himself through me. I hide God’s glory in a box and in doing so take away from the greatest example of His love: the Cross. I look at the Cross and see me. I see my shame and my sin pouring out of Christ’s body and I see His love for me holding Him there. The Cross is about us friends. But it is all about us in order to demonstrate everything about God: His mercy, His love, His forgiveness, and His sacrifice. How personal is the cross to you? Have you ever truly considered the words of perhaps the most remembered bible verse of all time: “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). We commit these words to memory but fail to see that God’s ultimate goal wasn’t to save an entire population of sinners; His goal was to reveal His mercy and love by saving a fallen world of sinners. The ultimate result is the same. But the ultimate purpose is His glory, not our glory. Don’t think I’m implying that God sent His son for His own reputation and not out of His selfless love. I’m implying that all of creation, a creation of guilty sinners, exists as a divine example of God’s perfectly genuine love. And no one knew that love better than His son Jesus Christ. And when Jesus prepared Himself for the Cross; He wasn’t focused on himself; He was focused on God. He didn’t have to endure the beatings, the mocking, the physical and emotional pain and torture but He did. He said His final words on a Cross so His Father’s glory could be revealed. So His Father’s love could become as real to other’s as it is to Him. So you and I could have everlasting life. Can you imagine if Jesus put God in a box? If He allowed God to lead Him to the cross but choose His own glory over His father’s? Jesus knew it wasn’t about Him alone, He knew that it was about His Father. He knew that each and every one of our salvations’ had to be bought by His blood. He knew that by commending His Spirit into God’s hands; God’s greatest example of love would take place and God’s glory would be revealed.
The soldier’s who beat Jesus’ body, nailed his hands and feet to a cross, and placed a crown of thorns upon His head watched Him suffer the most torturous death of all time. And when they placed Him in a tomb; they were convinced the Son of God had been permanently placed in a box. I don’t know about you friends, but I wish I could have been there to see the look on their faces when my King busted through the walls of their box and rose again. Jesus is alive and He is sitting at the right hand of His Father patiently waiting to rip open the clouds of heaven and descend upon this Earth for His creation of sinners who believe in Him as their savior. He is waiting to complete the final chapter of God’s glory.
Easter isn’t about the candy or dollar bills inside of the eggs friends; it is about a Man who is no longer inside the tomb. It’s about our sins that we no longer bear. It is about a God who loves us enough to send His son to die for us. It’s about clinging to a cross that oversees the piles and piles of boxes representing the repetition of God overpowering our failed attempts to contain His glory.
Verse to remember:
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 1:5-6 In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Luke 24 1-6 1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen!
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