Easter is Enough

Today is Palm Sunday. It’s the first day of Holy Week, our celebration of the final week of Christ’s life, his death, and, finally and most gloriously, his resurrection.  It is also most famously known in Christian circles as the week and the Sundays we are most likely to have visitors to church.

Which is amazing! Because this is the week we get to share the most incredible and life-giving message of our faith.

We get to share about Christ’s resurrection. We get to say, “He was dead and then He was alive!  And that same power that raised Him from the dead now lives within us through the Holy Spirit. And that Spirit in us makes us fellow heirs with Him which means now and for all eternity, we get to be called the children of God!“

I cannot imagine a more needed, more meaningful, more dynamic message that we could bring to our broken and divided country, filled with hurting and tired people, and weary, worn out families.  And, this week, we have the chance to share that message with more people than we usually do.

So, of course, this is what we are most excited about, yes?  

This is what we are putting our time and our energy and our preparation and prayers into right? And this is what those who visit us will be talking about and contemplating as they leave our church walls this week; this life changing truth of resurrection and hope and peace and God’s unending grace?

Because that is the only thing that truly matters. The only thing that truly needs to be remembered.

Our Easter egg hunts shouldn’t be so fun that the joy of resurrection pales in comparison.

Our gimmicky gadgets that shoot toilet paper, suck up offerings, spray out candy, and light up stages shouldn’t steal the show.

Our bags of candy and Easter dinners and peanut butter eggs and jelly bean lessons shouldn’t be what it remembered and talked about and most memorable about this week, this Sunday, this Easter.

If that is what we leave with…if that is the memory…then friends, we have missed the most beautiful opportunity of sharing the gospel that we have been given. We have missed Easter. 

Can I challenge us to slow down and consider this week that the resurrection is enough?

That if we take the time to join Christ in His final week;

if we embrace Maundy Thursday and the experience of that Last Supper and the conversation that took place around that table as the first communion was celebrated;

if we mourn on Good Friday the death of Jesus on the cross and we contemplate on Holy Saturday the silence of the grave;

and then if we break forth in unfettered celebration and praise on Easter Sunday as we celebrate the ruin of death and the triumph of eternal life in the resurrection;

…if we do all of that, we don’t need to do more.

This is enough. It will fill our souls. It will captivate our hearts. It will be all that people need. It is all that people need.

This is the gospel. This is our message. 

We don’t need to improve it. We don’t need to make it flashier or more memorable. We simply need to offer it, experience it, and share it with as much excitement and passion as we do our Easter Egg Hunts and tee shirt cannons.

Maybe just a bit more.

Because it’s the Resurrection. It’s Easter.

Everything else should pale in comparison. 

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