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Rev Mark Greenlees of Shellharbour City Regional (Uniting) Church asks what you will be doing for Easter.
Will you be enjoying a long weekend? Perhaps a camping trip or a visit to the Easter Show? Maybe you’ll be (over)indulging in chocolate eggs and bunnies – I probably will be!
In many respects, Easter has become just another holiday in our calendar – an opportunity for a pre-winter break.
For those who attend a Christian church, Easter can become a time of busily attending multiple worship services – often with chocolate-high children with little interest, or ability, in sitting still for an hour.
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But is that really all this four-day holiday really is?
For followers of Jesus Christ, Easter is about sacrifice and an expression of love unmatched in human history. In the events of the crucifixion and the resurrection we are reminded that even the very worst that humans can do to one another is not beyond forgiveness and unforgivable.
In the events of Easter we are reminded of the promise that God loves the world – you and me – so much that He is willing to do anything and give everything for you and me to find release from what the old hymn writers called “the burden of sin”.
The concept of sin has become something that seems to belong to a world that has passed, but the reality is that “sin” simply means “missing the mark”, perhaps “not measuring up” would be another way of putting it.
I don’t know about you, but I am reminded daily – through social media, television, even in my relationships – that I am more than capable of “not measuring up” as a husband, a father, a grandpa, a friend, a pastor, and even in the way I treat myself.
The reality is I “miss the mark”, and I can find this “burden” overwhelming.
Easter says to me and you that we are not expected, or intended, to carry the “burden of not measuring up”.
In the cross, Jesus Christ cries out, “Father forgive them”.
In the cross and empty tomb, Jesus looks across human history and invites all who feel that they have “missed the mark”, to receive new beginnings and a release from the bondage of believing the lie of “not measuring up”.
In the empty tomb, Jesus reveals himself as the one who can conquer the impact of sin – separation from the presence of the God of life and love – by bridging the gap that our sin creates.
In the resurrection, Jesus invites all those who recognise they have “missed the mark” of all God longs for us to be, to receive the promise of new life – a life that brings healing and wholeness to every part of life.
My prayer is that this Easter you might pause from the busyness and fun and maybe visit your local Christian church to hear more of this wonderful promise of life in absolute abundance.
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