Easter 2007

2000 years ago, one man made a decision that rewrote the stories of a million souls that had lived, is living and will live. One man willingly chose to carry all the brokenness, sins and deaths of men on the cross, despite the fact that He could cry out and send legions of angels to rescue Him from the extremely excruciating crucification. One man made such a big sacrifice although He knew that there is a chance that people might not even acknowledge the gift He gave to men.

His name is Jesus. And He's not a myth, He is the truth the life and the way. And He's not scary at all, if you bother getting to know Him.

Many of us would already know the history of Christ, even if we are not yet believers, as the legitimacy of His story is one of the most debatable topics even in today's time. There is a group of people who firmly knows and believes that it is true. There is another group of people who knows it is true, yet they don't seem to act in such way. Finally, there is a group of people who has yet to know who this great man is. Whichever group you are in, please, I ask you to continue reading.

1. The Suffering

What exactly did Jesus go through, that millions of people call Him their Lord and savior? Let me give you a very (hopefully) mentally and graphically clear illustration.

Do you know of people who seem to go into year-long depression because of rejection from/death of/ignorance by their loved one(s)? Do you know people who are so easily angered that they end up killing themselves along with others? Do you know people who live dark underground lives full of immoral and unethical acts? Do you know of people who are constantly mocked and ridiculed just because they were born with a deformity on their body? Do you know of people who live in guilt throughout their life that they are paralized by their own misery?

Now blend all those together and multiply the combination of feelings with a number equilavent to the number of men who had lived in the past, is living in the present and will be living in the future (which should amount to somewhere near infinity). That was what Jesus experienced. And we haven't even talked about physical tormentation yet.

If you can't imagine the mental overload above, let's try a physical illustration. Remember when we were young, we dropped on the ground and injured our kness, then we would start to cry because of the pain? Now, multiply that feeling of pain with the same number we used above and you should get a pain stimulation and physical injury that killed Jesus.

Jesus did not carry one man's burden on the cross, he carried the burden of an infinite number of men.

2. The Understanding

Why are we in the world we live today? Are we here by chance? Are we here because somehow, simple life emerged a billion years before and through natural-probability selection, humans emerged as a result of evolution? Do we live to die? Do we live just to grow, have a peaceful and abundant life and die of old age? Is there no greater purpose in life?

NO.

Let me present you with an analogy given by Pastor Kevin. If you walk in a shopping mall one day and see coins scattered on the ground, most people would say that someone had dropped the coins accidentally. But if you walked in the same mall the next day and see two nicely arranged stacks of coins, you would have known that someone arranged it, and that the stacks did not arrange themselves by chance or by random selection.

If we are the result of a completely random evolution, why are we so orderly arranged? If you asked me, someone had been doing all this arranging at some point of time. In fact, it requires a bigger amount of faith to believe that we are built in such a way by chance alone. If we are the result of chance, why are we the only creatures on planet Earth that have a strong spiritual hunger in life? We are the only creatures asking this question: What is the meaning of life?

The meaning of life is to experience God in preparation for our departure from this world. A great purpose indeed.

3. The Call

We celebrate Easter today to acknowledge Jesus' victory over death. We celebrate Easter to remind ourselves that 2000 years ago, a man rewrote our life that we may be able to bear our burdens, that we may be able to live abundantly if we believe in Him. The reason we prepare magnificient dramas portraying the life of Jesus Christ is to show the world that a man loved us so much that he paid the ultimate price for the ultimate sacrifice.

Some people laugh over the prospects of conversion. They think its a laughing matter. IT ISN'T. Each soul who received Jesus is an additional soul added to heaven and an additional soul removed from hell. No one wants the gates of Hades to win over heaven. Each soul saved takes his or her share of God's infinite grace and love. Each soul saved is an additional sister or brother gained in heaven.

One thing is for sure: God does not force. All of God's greatest gifts comes with choice. Love is the result of the choice to love. If the path of love is the only path to take, it isn't love. The fact that we have to choose to love makes it so precious, so meaningful. Same goes for happiness. Same goes for peace. Same goes for forgiveness.

If you currently do not see youself as a Christian in your entire life, that becoming a Christian is an impossible feat, don't worry, you have the exact same thought most of us had before we accepted Christ. Guess what? Miracle do happen. People who had a taste of God usually want more of it. And before they know it, their entire life is transformed for the better. Just because we know, and we believe that one man died for us.

2000 years ago, one man made a decision that rewrote the stories of a million souls that had lived, is living and will live.

Thank you Jesus!

P.S.: CHC Easter Production 2007 ROXXOR!!!