I love Easter. I love how everyone is so focused on Christ and talking about the events of Holy Week. Honestly, it’s a nice change of pace from some of the usual things that are on social media. But as I scrolled through all of the Palm Sunday posts, a burden grew in my heart.
And yes, I know that burdened is an odd emotion to have as you scroll through Palm Sunday posts, but let me explain. As I was scrolling, it hit me that, for this week, it’s kind of “trendy” to post about Jesus. Please, don’t get me wrong, I love the Christ-centered posts, but what has me so burdened is knowing that a lot of these Christ-centered posts will disappear into thin air until Christmas or Easter rolls around again.
Then this thought hit me- It’s very popular to celebrate Jesus as Savior, but what about Jesus as Lord? I mean, we all want that “get out of Hell free” card, but Jesus didn’t just save us to just get us out of Hell. Jesus saved us for a purpose. Jesus saved us to be the Lord of our lives.
We can see this all throughout Scripture, even at the beginning in Genesis. God created Adam & Eve, they lived in perfect fellowship with Him, & He gave them a purpose- to be fruitful & multiply, or as I like to think of it, to fill the world with worshippers of the Creator Himself (Genesis 9:7). Another place this stood out to me was in the Exodus story. As I read through those oh so familiar passages, the phrase “so that” continually jumped out at me. God commanded that His people be set free from the Egyptians SO THAT they could worship Him. And then fast forward to the New Testament, and we see this purpose in the Great Commission. Jesus commands His disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”; essentially, He’s telling them to fill the world with worshippers of Him, just like He commanded Adam and Eve at the beginning (Matthew 28:18-20). And now there’s us, and we must grasped that, yes, we were saved from sin, but we were also saved for something too. Jesus doesn’t just save us so that we can go along our merry way and live our lives as if nothing has changed. Nope. We can’t do that. Because after Jesus saves you, EVERYTHING has changed.
The absolute beautiful thing about the salvation that Jesus offers is that we can do nothing to earn it. Please, hear me loud and clear on that. I am in no way saying that we share the Gospel or serve in the name of Jesus to earn His favor. We do these things out of a love for Him after our salvation. We can literally do nothing to earn the favor of a holy God, & He knows this. So, out of a deep love for us that I will never fully grasp, while we were His enemies, the Father sent His Son to die. Jesus died a brutal death on the cross to take the punishment for our sin that we deserve. The perfect Son of God died for me. He died for you. Pause and let that sink in for a moment. We have a hard time doing a nice act of service for people who love us. Jesus did THE Act of Service for people who hated Him. But the story doesn’t stop there; it gets even better. 3 days later, Jesus rose again! Jesus defeated death & sin, & right now, He is alive. I literally have no words that can do justice to how wonderful this news is.
And that is why we celebrate Easter. But we can’t just read or talk about the Easter story and then stop there and move on with our lives. We can’t just accept Jesus as our Savior and then act as if nothing happened. If so, then we didn’t really accept Him as Savior.
When you truly grasp what Jesus did for you, when you truly grasp Easter, then Jesus will be Savior AND Lord. Because when you realize the death that He died for you, the punishment that He took for you, and the victory that He won for you, you will realize that there’s no other response that’s appropriate than to make Him Lord of your life. You’ll make Him Lord over your words, over your attitude. You’ll make Him Lord over your time and your money. You’ll make Him Lord over your career path and how you parent your children. You will die to yourself and live for Christ. And when Jesus is Lord of your life, you will live out the purpose that He saved you for- to glorify Him by obeying Him and filling the world with worshippers of Him.
Will you be perfect at this? Definitely not. But when you accept Christ as Savior and Lord, every sin that you have or will commit has been forgiven. And even better, Jesus loves you enough to not leave you there in your sin, so through the Spirit, He sanctifies you to make that you may be more like Him.
So, don’t stop your Easter celebration at pretty dresses, egg hunts, and a social media post. These things are wonderful, but Jesus deserves more. If you truly want to celebrate Easter, then give Jesus your life. It’s the least that we can give Him after all that He has done for us. He deserves and commands to sit on the throne of everything from our mundane days to our big life decisions. He deserves and commands to be Savior AND Lord. Happy Easter, friends!
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