The Truth of Easter
Minister's Letter March 2024
Dear Grace Church,
It’s been a real encouragement thinking about a number of other congregations during our weekly Family Focus slot over the last six weeks. We truly are a part of a worldwide family. Easter is a great time to remember this, for Ephesians 2.14-18 tells us that through the cross we are all made one people in Christ. I messaged Paul Sanduleac in Moldova, who we highlighted this past Sunday. He was grateful to know that we were praying for them and the work of gospel there. He sent this link which gives more information on their ministry:
https://reformationmoldova.org
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What first comes to your mind when you think about Easter?
What do you think the answer would be for everyone else who lives on your street? I’d hazard a guess that the majority would think of chocolate eggs or maybe a bunny.
But let’s imagine we ask them to think about the first Easter. A decent number would probably be able to tell you that it had something to do with Jesus and a cross.
For the more well informed, they could tell you that the son of a carpenter in Nazareth was the victim of a severe injustice. They could explain that religious leaders manoeuvred and manipulated the system, stirring up the mob and played politics with the Roman Governor to have a wandering preacher killed. They might then describe how Jesus was flogged, which meant having his back ripped by whips with bone embedded at the tip. Finally they’d tell you he was hung up on a cross, an instrument of torture used by the Roman occupiers of Judah, where he died.
All of this is true and crucial. But it does not bring us all the way to the heart of the truth of Easter.
In January I wrote a letter describing the nature of the Christian life in our modern culture as “enchanted living in a haunted world”. The German Max Weber popularised the term, the “disenchantment” of Western Civilisation. He claimed that with the advent of the Enlightenment in the 18th century, we no longer are guided by a superstition in the supernatural. Because of the emergence of the scientific method and the ascent of reason, he asserted that increasingly we don’t need religious myths to explain the world anymore.
What he was trying to describe was the shift in the way the modern person sees the world. They have become “disenchanted” as they no longer believe there is anything beyond or behind the material universe.
At Easter, what does the disenchanted person see? Nothing more than a dead man on a cross.
But what do we see as Christians? And what do we invite others to come and see?
All that we described above about Jesus happened in history. His death was schemed by the Pharisees and Priests and carried out by the Roman soldiers. But his death was also authored by God as promised and foreshadowed in the Scriptures.
As Alister McGrath states it:
“That Jesus died is history. That Jesus died for our sins is the gospel.”
At the cross, Jesus was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. On the cross, Jesus who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. He was wounded so that he could heal us. He died for our sins so that we would be freed from them. He was rejected so that we would be accepted by God.
By faith, on the cross we behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!
And the Lamb who was slain, is the Lamb who was raised and now reigns.
If you’re in Montrose, join us this weekend as we remember and rejoice this Easter.
In Christ,
Ciarán R. Kelleher
April Treats
The Lord’s Supper was initiated by Jesus on the night he celebrated Passover with the disciples. This song draws the links between the two events each meal remembers, the Exodus and Easter.
This is a beautiful poem and video which tells the story of Easter:
“There was a rumour that the world was born in love…”