A Reflection for Easter
Easter weekend is upon us. If you work at or serve in a church, you are facing additional services, additional guests, additional go go go over the next few days.
The temptation at Easter is to work hard. Leave it all on the field. Give our very best.
But with that temptation comes the very real risk of making it through Easter without stopping to reflect on Easter. To see the scene in the garden. To look with horror upon the cross. To sit with despair in the upper room. And to rejoice that the tomb is empty, exactly as he said it would be.
If you’re a church staff member or volunteer, I can’t promise that this weekend will work in favor of you being able to do meditate on those things. In fact, I fear that your schedule and your to-do list will force you in the opposite direction.
So let’s fight for it together.
Let’s take time … right now … to slow down. Pause. Reflect on the events of Holy Week: the triumphal entry, the betrayal of a disciple, the great drops of blood, the crowing of the rooster, the words from the cross, the women at the tomb, the earth-changing and life-changing words He is risen.
In Surrender to Love: Discovering the Heart of Christian Spirituality, author David Benner talks about the idea of Christian meditation. He says:
Christian meditation is like spiritual daydreaming. Rather than analyzing or thinking about the passage, simply let yourself soak in it. There is no need to do anything with the words you read. Instead, let them do something to you. Don’t be preoccupied with examining what is happening. Just allow the words to turn over in your mind and wash over your heart.
He goes on to give us eight passages of scripture to meditate on. I have gone through this reflection several times since first reading his prompt. Each time, I feel like I meet God anew, freshly understanding a bit more about the depth of his love and the beauty of the cross and empty tomb. I pass these along to you now, as a pre-Easter pause. These passages can be true because Easter is true. We are loved. We were rescued. We have hope.
Benner again:
Prayerfully reflect on the following biblical passages, one at a time, taking as much time for each as you wish. Transformation demands more than a momentary experience of love. It demands sufficient basking in this love that being deeply loved, becomes the foundation of your identity.
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 91
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge—no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
Psalm 131
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
Isaiah 43:1-4
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.
Isaiah 49:14-16
But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
Hosea 11:1-4
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.
Matthew 10:29-31
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Romans 8:31-39
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thank you. Perfect.