He Is Alive!

When I was a kid I didn't completely understand Easter. I mean I knew that we celebrated when Jesus died for our sins and rose again on the third day but Christmas always seemed much more exciting to me. On Christmas it was only the good stuff we were celebrating, Jesus' birth, and we got presents! It's a great holiday to celebrate! But now as an adult I realize that Easter is equally important. See you can't have Easter without Christmas, because Jesus couldn't have died if He hadn't been born but without Easter we wouldn't have any basis for our faith.

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, the day we remember how Jesus rode into Jerusalem. People lined the streets, celebrating His arrival shouting "Hosana! Hosana in the Highest!" They laid down palm leaves and coats for his donkey to pass on. Then only five days later came Good Friday, [which is what we're celebrating today by the way] the day that Jesus was crucified. When He, a man who had never sinned once in His entire life, willingly took up the cross and walked down the Via Del a Rosa to Golgatha, where He was crucified. Jesus had never done anything wrong, and He, as the Son of God, could have chosen to walk away but instead He chose to die because He knew that this was the only possible way for us to be saved.

Jesus Christ, the perfect lamb, was sacraficed. He was beaten, mocked, humiliated and abandoned by those who had sworn to always be there for Him. He was rejected by the very people He came to save and as He took on the sins of the world He felt God the Father turn His face away. But in His final hours as He was hanging on a cross He forgave a sinner hanging next to Him. And with His last breath He prayed "Father forgive them for they know not what they have done." Then He said, "It is finished." And He breathed His last.

My friends if that was the way the story ended we would have no hope, our faith would have no meaning but it doesn't end there because on Sunday is the most important day of all history. Ressurection Sunday because Jesus didn't stay in the tomb. He didn't die and leave us alone, no! He rose again! He rose from the dead! And when people came to visit His tomb they found angels there! Then Jesus appeared! To the women, to two of his followers, to the 11 disciples left, and then to over five hundred people as He walked the earth for forty more days before He ascended back into Heaven! This is why we celebrate Easter, this is why we have faith! Because Jesus is alive! He didn't stay in the tomb, He rose again!

Jesus is alive! And He is with us even today, and He'll be with us tomorrow and the next day and every day to come because He loves us! He loved us enough to be born a helpless baby, He loved us enough to live a sinless life, He loved us enough to be tortured, humiliated and rejected, He loved us enough to die a horrible death on a cross and He loved us to rise again! He's alive and He still loves us that much!

Happy Easter, because it really is the happiest day in all of history because Jesus is alive!