When Easter Matters

As I stood in a funeral home yesterday evening mourning with people who are so precious to me - my granddaughters, my son-in-law, and a dear friend who lovingly stroked the quilt draping her mother's casket - I was thankful for the coming Easter.

No, delightful as they all are - not candy, or new clothing, or the spring season, or even the beautiful anthems that soloists and church choirs sing - are the reasons why Easter matters.

What matters is that death is not forever.

Like the disciples and women who followed Jesus, these dear ones stood in shock as one they love was unexpectedly taken from their presence. How could this be? Some of them had just spent the day with her! Didn't they have plans for the days ahead?

Yes, they did. But God had others plans for their loved one. And for them.

The calendar says that today is "Good Friday." It is the day that anyone remotely associated with Christendom acknowledges the death of Jesus Christ.

Can you feel the grief of the onlookers at the crucifixion? Does it make you weep for them? Or like so many others, do you think those people are just characters in some story?

Oh, no! They really lived, and breathed, and grieved their loss. His death seemed so final.

But in a matter of days their tears of sorrow were changed to those of pure joy! Their Beloved was alive! He had conquered death, the grave, and Hell itself! And because He did those whose sins were paid for by the blood that He shed that mournful day will also one day be resurrected!

Today is a dark day of grief for one dear family that I know. Today they placed their loved one in the grave. But Easter is coming. And Easter matters because that first Resurrection morning Jesus arose from the grave. And on that final Resurrection Day their loved one will also arise!

When you've just placed a loved one in the grave, that's when Easter matters!