Jesus is Alive and the Way
We just went through Holy Week, where we remember the last days of Jesus and what he did for us. This can look different between denominations, which is fine. It also looks a little different based on the culture. If knowing Jesus and thanking him for his sacrifice is at the center, then there shouldn’t be a problem. I know fellow Christians in a variety of denominations who walk like they follow Jesus.
It’s the people that push others into caring more about the rituals and the timing rather than what we are celebrating that cause the problems. Some of them are not wrong about what they are telling people, but their actions don’t show the love of God. Per the Bible, we are to tell the truth with love. Without love, we are nothing better than clanging gongs.
Jesus taught us through many parables and examples of how we are to walk with God. He showed us the way to live, besides proving that he was the way through his resurrection. The Bible is full of prophecies that point to God’s plan of how he would supply Jesus as the bridge back to him after the divide caused by Adam and Eve. Many call this the red thread because of Jesus’s blood being the final cleansing sacrifice that replaced all the temporal ones set up for the Jews until the Messiah came.
If Jesus didn’t rise again after his crucifixion, then all the preaching and faith associated would be for nothing. There would be no hope. The love of God would not have been shown to us as promised. The religious leaders wouldn’t have had to bribe the Roman soldiers to lie about what happened. Satan would have no reason to be prowling around trying to scatter believers and keep the world confused about God. But the lies continue because Jesus rose from the dead and the enemy doesn’t want us to know the truth. We know how hard it is for criminals to tell the same story without fail between all parties, so why do people want to claim his rising is false with all the religious and secular documentation that exists from hundreds of eyewitnesses that proves this time in history more than any other?
We celebrate the Holy Week because of the evidence that he truly died and rose again. He proclaimed it was done. The way was made for us to reconcile with God once more. Therefore, we rejoice and celebrate as Christians. His conquering of death and taking the keys of hell proclaim him the King of kings and Lord of lords. The way is open to become children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, to be a friend of Jesus.
God’s love is the authentic example of what love should be. None of us can come close to such love without his help. That love and mercy has the power to break all strongholds that keep us from what God created us to be. It took the keys of hell and beat death for us while we were still sinners resisting to follow him.
We don’t know when he will return, but he promised he would. If all the other is true, wouldn’t you think it best to give him a chance to show you the way before it is too late?
Scriptures for further study thanks to my church’s service that helped me dig deeper into what I wanted to say:
1 Corinthians 15:14, 17-18
Romans 5:8-12, 15-17
John 3:16-17
Matthew 28:1-7, 11-15
Psalm 103:2-5, 10-12