Easter Fixes Everything
One thing I’m not proud to admit about myself: I get very impatient when things don’t work the way that they’re supposed to. I should clarify (to save some face) that I specifically mean technology. Whether it’s a glitch with a printer, my laptop refusing to connect to Wifi, my phone crashing because I dared try to use Google Maps and Spotify at the same time – nothing rattles me quite like tech failing to perform its intended function. It doesn’t help that I’m not very technologically gifted to begin with. “Why can’t you do what you’re supposed to do?” I scold my unresponsive pieces of silicon.
I share this because, as I reflect on my frustration, I’ve realized that it’s unwarranted because I really shouldn’t be surprised by things not working the way they’re meant to. The reason being, this whole world doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. At the end of Genesis 1, God proclaims that the universe He created is “very good;” at that time, it was a masterpiece, a perfectly engineered cosmos, beautiful in every square inch and with every atom vibrating exactly as its Creator ordained. But when sin came into the story and corrupted everything in Genesis 3, all of creation suddenly became like my imperfect, battered computer, prone to glitches and destined to deteriorate. The earth still bears many, many echoes of its original glory – I mean, the incredible nature that surrounds us here at Echo Ranch is a testament to this, and the beauty of God’s creation here never gets old to me. But even so, disaster, decay, and death stain even the best parts of this once-perfect world. As Spurgeon said, “There is nothing we have here below, which is not somewhat tainted with grief.”
But you know what the worst part of it all is? It’s not just that the world doesn’t work the way it should – I don’t work the way I should! Who am I to criticize my manmade devices for not carrying out their duties due to some mistake or random disconnect, when I daily fail to do what my Creator has commanded me to do, not by accident but because of my rebelliousness and pride? God made me to reach out and love everyone around me, but I’m pulled inward by the gravity of my selfishness. His law says to be content and not covet, but my eyes can’t stop drifting toward what my neighbor has and I don’t. He lovingly bids us to not be anxious about anything, but even when I try, it seems my heart snaps back to worry like a rubber band. And on and on the list goes.
If you resonate with all of this, the good news is that Easter will fix it all. The reason we celebrate Easter, of course, is that Jesus rose from the dead. But why is that something to celebrate, beyond the fact that it’s a pretty spectacular miracle? When I think about Easter, my mind always goes to 1 Corinthians 15. There Paul tells us why the Resurrection matters: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep [i.e., died] in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (vv. 17-19). I love showing this passage to skeptics of Christianity, because Paul so brazenly lays it all out: if Jesus did not rise from the dead, there is no hope for us Christians. No consolation prize, no backups. If the Resurrection didn’t happen, then everything we believe about Jesus and our whole mission at Echo Ranch Bible Camp is all a sham, a waste, a lie.
But Paul doesn’t leave it there. In the next verses he says, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come the resurrection of the dead.” That’s the twofold reason why Easter matters so much: because the Resurrection is the ultimate vindication of Jesus’ claims to be God and the Messiah, and because his Resurrection means that those united to him by faith will ourselves be resurrected one day. I’m not talking about going to heaven when we die; that’s not the end of our story. We will one day be raised to the glorious, perfect, bodily life that Jesus alone, as the firstfruits, currently enjoys. In our eternally glorified bodies, we will be freed from disease, death, decay, and best of all, sin.
And the earth itself will join us. The Bible promises that God will transform this world into a “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (1 Peter 3:13). A healed, perfected world like Eden, but even better. Finally, everything will work the way it’s supposed to, and the sorrows and breakdowns that characterize our present world will be distant memories. And if earth today is still so beautiful in the midst of its brokenness, can you even imagine how breathtaking God will make it in eternity?
The hope of this renewal, this resurrection, is promised to us on Easter, with Jesus’ Resurrection as the guarantee. I hope as you reflect on it this post-Easter week, it fills you with encouragement as you navigate life’s problems and think about the coming solution to all of them. And just as the Resurrection is what gives us motivation as we start another season of ministry at camp, may it cause you to be, as Paul says in the ending verse of 1 Corinthians 15, “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”