He died for you

This season, across the world, there is a certain solemnity hovering in the air. In some climes governments have declared Friday to Monday work free days. What for? Is it to celebrate some national hero? Or to mark an important date in their national calendar? Is it to welcome some illustrious statesmen? Or to rest because there is less work to do? Nay.

The season is important because someone, over 2000 years ago (we are told), walked a lonely path to a cross, got nailed to dead in place of all of us. The human race cannot ignore the import of such a sublime sacrifice; they chose to commemorate it year by year. “A fantastic fairy tale” you may say. Some bookworms may even call it a Jewish myth; while others may refer to it as idle chants of religious freaks. Whichever divide you belong, there are important questions worthy of cogitation: Why do the death and supposed resurrection of a single man more than 2000 years ago hold the whole world in a vice-like grip? Why does the influence of that event, rather than wane, grow in magnitude as years roll by? As one song writer puts it, “why do people stop and pray to a man who is dead and gone?”

Great philosophers lived and died, but are only remembered in scholarly circles. Jesus of Nazareth has an enduring influence even among toddlers and infants. He has been talked and written about more than any other being that has walked the surface of our earth. He did not die by accident, neither did he die for any wrong he has done (He is a universally acclaimed sinless being).

 Why then did He die?

He died for us all, for we all have sinned and the wages of that sin is death. He died for you. That is why the world stands still for Him today. That is the essence of Easter. It is not just another religious ceremony. It is a celebration of Grace; a celebration God’s Righteousness At Christ’s Expense. A celebration of the fact that we, nay you, deserved to die, but Christ took our, nay your, place and died for you, without asking for anything in return.

He only asks you to receive Him as your Lord and King. He says Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Rev. 3:20). And … as many as received him, to them gave he power to becomes the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12)

This is the message of Easter. Believe and receive Him today. He died for YOU.