The Easter Proposal

History is dotted with events that changed our understanding of the world, human nature, and life. Christ’s death was one such event. The earth may have shaken at the moment of his death (Matt. 27:51-52), but no one then fully understood its earth-shaking implications. Christian theologians have since looked back and come up with some big words to try to capture its profundity—propitiation, justification, substitution, atonement, and so on. All are loaded with meaning, but reconciliation means most to me.

I imagine the cross as a proposal of sorts. God on bended knee saying, “I forgive you and hold nothing against you. I love you and want you in my life forever. I am committed to you, so much that I would even die for you. If you will have me, I promise that I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will walk with you all the days of your life. The decision is yours. Will you have me?”  

Christ’s cross then stands not simply as the mystical and abstract symbol we sometimes make it, but as an offer of practical significance, an opportunity and call to live a God-led and -centered life. It is not an offer of a life of ease, but of commitment to God and his purposes however he chooses to express them in our lives.

As we gather at the table this Easter, remembering the blood spilled and body broken, let’s also reflect on how we’ve responded to his offer. Are we as “all in” as he is?

Happy Easter.

“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.” (Mk. 8:34)