When my daughters were young, we came to Easter worship at Westminster Church with my extended family. We all got dressed up in our Sunday best and a few of us arrived early to “hold our pew.” We got the one we wanted, five rows back on the right-hand side. A bit later, the rest of the family arrived along with hundreds of other church goers in their Sunday best. The sanctuary was adorned with pretty bright tulips, Easter lilies, and hydrangeas. The brass musicians were already sitting up front ready to lead the congregation in “Christ the Lord Is Risen today!” Yes, everything was falling into place for Sunday worship.
Just before the service was to begin, a grandmother and her young grandson, Tim, came down the center aisle and squeezed in the pew behind us. The boy had never been to church before. He asked questions about everything he saw. “Why are there flowers on the widows?” “What are all these people doing here?” “Why is the ceiling so high?” Questions went on during the service, too.
Tim loved passing the peace, but other parts of the service were boring to him. “Who is that man in the funny robe?” the boy asked during the sermon. Then he blurted out, “Jesus, who is Jesus? Why are we talking about Jesus so much?” Quickly his grandmother bent over and whispered to him, “He is why we are here. Jesus rose from the dead and we came to worship him.” But that innocent, direct question stayed with me.
The beautiful Easter flowers, the grand music, the word proclaimed, the gathering for worship all proclaimed the risen Christ. Yet, Tim’s question got to the heart of the matter. Who is this Jesus? Why are we talking about him so much? I can begin with a few formal answers:
In Jesus, God came into the world to live among us – incarnation.
Jesus was God’s Son, truly divine and truly human – hypostatic union.
Jesus died for us, took our sins and by his death brought a new possibility for living – atonement.
Jesus died but was raised from the dead by the power of God – resurrection.
Matthew 29:1-15, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-10
Jesus conquered sin and death in the resurrection, so we receive a life lived forever in the presence of God in heaven – eternal life.
The question “Who is Jesus?” begs a personal response from us, too. Who is Jesus for you and me? For me, Jesus is the one who knows me completely, claims me as his own, forgives my sins, loves me totally, and transforms my heart and life daily to be more and more like him. I believe in him and live humbly having received his grace. To quote a popular song, “He is my all and all.”
This Easter season, I pray for all of us to experience the gift of wonder that Tim found in worship. May we experience again the power of the miracle, Christ is alive. The same power of love that raised Christ from the dead is able to raise us to new life so we can live the kind of loving, trusting, and obedient lives God intended. Yes, this is good news for us to celebrate!
Together on the journey,
Louise