Excerpts from my Red Rock News Religion Column April 18, 2025
- Rev. Dona Johnson |April 20, 2025
The Easter story is such a mystery and is so miraculous that it stands girded in its own power and spiritual weight. In the Gospel of John’s Easter account (John 20:1-18), Mary runs to the tomb and finds the huge stone rolled back. Mary in shock runs back to give John and Peter the news. Remember this is not Good News yet. For all they know, Jesus is dead. So, the men too run to witness the empty tomb. Mary who is suffering profound grief and flashbacks of Jesus’ execution, stands in the garden outside the tomb her eyes blinded with tears of fear, sorrow and confusion. Then a man quietly appears, he looks like a gardener. The man lovingly calls out her name, “Mary.” Then in one of the greatest recognitions ever recorded, Mary turns in the direction of the voice, and discovers the voice, the man is Jesus! Her heart quickens with overwhelming amazement. Immediately she cries out “Rabboni,” and reaches out to grab him. Mary runs back to the other disciples shouting, “I have seen the Lord!”
Easter is the voice of God speaking into the darkness of our fears. Life comes with a whole host of fears. And we feed those fears with all sorts of things—fear of death, fear of not having enough financial resources, fear of loss—loss of health, loss of an accustomed lifestyle or the loss of success and popularity. But God whose grace is always greater than anything we hold in our hearts breaks out of the grave to quell our fears and replace our fears with an eternal hope. Through Jesus, God who becomes man, forgives our sinful ways and conquers bodily and spiritual death for us that we might be saved from what we fear the most. He guarantees his love for us by giving us an irrevocable trust that cannot be revoked or changed.
Oh we may be distracted by the fierce competing voices that try to consume and take over our lives—news cycles, our attachments to power, politics, popularity and status, wealth and material possessions or we may be blinded by our unfounded biases about religion and Christianity and reject the possibility of resurrection and Jesus altogether. But whatever the case, the voice of God keeps speaking. God keeps loving. Even though you may reject him you cannot stop God from loving you!
The death and resurrection of Jesus defies all human definitions, intellectual knowledge and scientific pursuits. God refuses to let anyone put him in a box, let alone a dark, sealed tomb.
The Christian God is unlike any god humans can imagine. Oh, there had been other messianic figures that had risen in the past and claimed to be somebody. But they were suppressed and killed by the Romans. No resurrection nor movement arose around these dead messiahs. What is difficult for any of us to grasp is that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s love is able to materialize right before our eyes. God’s love takes on flesh so we can see what real love looks like, watch love in action and try to emulate it!
Only Christianity dares to claim their Messiah, with resurrection power and unconditional love for humanity conquered sin and death. David Benner, an internationally known psychologist and transformational coach writes, “The God Christians worship loves sinners, redeems failures, delights in second chances, and fresh starts and never tires of pursuing lost sheep, waiting for prodigal children, or those damaged by life and left on the sides of its path.”
Easter is God becoming unconditional love for us that we may become love for one another. The good news of Christianity is something that we would have never have discovered if Jesus had not come and shown us the character of God. The world we live in adheres to the principle you get what you deserve. But God through Jesus Christ offers us something we could never deserve—eternity, forgiveness and freedom from the guilt and shame of sin. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:17).
Let us with one voice celebrate Jesus, who is alive today interceding for us before the Father.
Have a blessed and joyous Easter!
- Rev. Dona Johnson |April 20, 2025