The Wonder of Easter!

(Excerpted from Maria Fontaine's 2010 Easter message)

The Easter season is a wonderful opportunity for Christians everywhere to unite as we praise our living, risen Savior! I think that Pope John Paul II expressed the Christian perspective on the resurrection so well when he said, “We are the Easter people and ‘hallelujah’ is our song!”

Because He rose, I, too, shall rise,
Shall rise and walk and dance and sing;
And there shall be no grief, no pain,
Nor any tears, remembering!
—Martha Snell Nicholson

Easter represents all that our salvation is (John 11:25–26).—And THAT’S worth celebrating! Easter stands for everything that has been and forever will be possible in our resurrection-empowered lives. It represents:

• Freedom from condemnation of past mistakes and failures (Rom.8:1).
• Liberation from fear of death (Heb.2:14–15).
• The guarantee of hope for an eternal future in a Home that Jesus has gone to prepare for us (John 14:2–3).
• An alternative to the temporal, sin-laden, suffering-plagued existence of this world (John 16:33).
• The opening of the door of Heaven to us.
• The blind given sight (1Pet.2:9; John 9:25).
• Common men and women becoming kings and queens (Rev.5:9–10).
• The drowning man rescued.
• The brand snatched from the burning (Zec.3:2).
• The power to preach good tidings, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isa.61:1,3).
• The paralyzed becoming mobile (Mat.11:5).
• The earth coming to life in the spring.
• The knowledge that man can live forever (1John 2:17).
• A demonstration that anything wonderful can happen when all hope seems gone.
• Complete forgiveness (Isa.1:18).
• Freedom from the law of death (Rom.8:2).
• The truth let loose in the world (John 1:17).
• The sting taken out of death (1Cor.15:55).
• The guarantee that there are no illnesses nor pain in Heaven (Rev.21:4).
• The promise of eternal life with our loved ones (Acts 16:31).
• The assurance of a glorious future, no matter how bad the world gets.
• The power to conquer all impossibilities (Luke 1:37).
• Divine healing power (Mark 16:17–18).
• A way of life, not just a religion or a ritual (John 10:10).
• The Gladys Aylwards of the world cradling abandoned babies in their arms.
• Powerful prayer ministries like those of Sophie the Washerwoman.
• Jesus' ambassadors all over the world undergoing severe afflictions and struggles, but continuing steadfast in their missions in poverty-stricken and war-torn countries.
• Those short on finances, welcoming the destitute into their homes and lovingly sharing their limited resources with them.

He Who was the Spirit of Love and the Spirit of Life was destroyed in the flesh, but His Spirit could not be destroyed (Luke 23:46; 1Pet.3:18). What was destroyed for all who turn to Jesus was the power of sin and death, the spirit of the world, and those spiritual forces bound to them. Their power was broken and conquered by Christ for any who would receive His gift of sacrificial love. These forces of Satan no longer have any power or authority over His children beyond what Jesus allows for a purpose: to teach us and strengthen us, to cause our witness to shine even brighter, and to draw us closer to Him.
What Jesus did through His death and resurrection to bring us salvation is something so very mysterious and beyond our human comprehension that we won’t be able to fully understand it until we’re liberated from the realm of the flesh into the spirit—and maybe not even then. However, every time we reflect on what Jesus did for each one of us—and for all of us—it renews our sense of reverence and awe.

Happy Easter, everybody!


--Brian Whyte