11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
-John 20:11-16
What’s the big deal about Easter? Why is it the most important holiday in all of Christianity—even more important than Christmas?
Easter, also known as Resurrection Sunday, is the day when Christians celebrate Jesus’ authority over death. Christians believed that Jesus was crucified on Good Friday for our sins and then three days later on Sunday, he rose from grave conquering death itself.
Jesus coming back to life is pretty incredible, but how does it affect us? To answer this question we need to define “death” the way the Bible defines it. We typically think of death as only physical death—our bodies dying. The Bible defines death as our reality unraveling out of a broken relationship with God.
Because God is God and He holds all things together, our broken relationship with God leads to death in our relationship with all other things. Our relationship with ourselves is broken. Our relationship with each other is broken. Our relationship with our bodies are broken (hence physical death). Our relationship with nature is broken. Our relationship with society is broken. The list goes on! All other brokenness starts from our broken relationship with God.
To be clear: Anything that’s messed up with the world can all be traced to source of death itself—a broken relationship with God.
So when we say that Jesus conquered death, what we really mean to say is that Jesus was able to fix our relationship with God—the source of all life and reality. The resurrection allows us to be restored in our relationship with God and by extension it starts healing and fixing all our other relationships—with ourselves, with each other, etc.
If you are a follower of Jesus, the power of the resurrection has restored your relationship with God. And as you continue to grow in your faith, the effects of the resurrection will continue to ripple through your life as God helps you to restore all your broken relationships. This should fill you with gratitude and joy! This is why we as Christians celebrate Easter!
If you don’t consider yourself a Christian, thank you so much for reading and keeping an open mind. Perhaps the fact that you’re even reading this devotional is God’s way of gently knocking on the door of your heart and asking you to let Him inside. He wants to be in a loving relationship with you. Notice in this passage how Mary, Jesus’ friend, didn’t even recognize who he was until Jesus said her name. Perhaps God is saying your name today. If you want to learn more, ask a Harvesters leader or a Young Life leader. They would love to talk with you more about what it means to follow Jesus.
Happy Resurrection Sunday! He is risen!
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