Have you ever heard of Dositheos the Samaritan? How about Shlomo Molcho? Nope? Maybe Sabbatai Zevi? Didn’t think so. These are just a few men who were thought to possibly be the Messiah by Jewish people. But unlike Jesus of Nazareth, their names are obscure to all but religious historians.

Jesus of Nazareth is different. People all around the world, 2000 years later, know his name. For me, when I wonder about what happened that first Easter weekend, it seems evident that something absolutely stunning happened. Because of this, II’m a firm believer that Jesus was crucified, dead and buried, and then came back to life in a form that was similar but not exactly like his previous body.

I believe the actual resurrection of Jesus is the only plausible explanation for why his followers risked death and were actually martyred over and over for their claim that Jesus had risen from the dead. Their boldness in sharing the amazing story, and the work of the Holy Spirit among Jesus’ followers, led to the rapid numerical growth of those who followed Jesus.

But what was the meaning of the death and resurrection events? If these events did not happen to appease God the Father’s need of justice for sins against Him, then why did they happen? Read Part 1 And what sense can someone 2000 years later make of the earliest followers’ understanding of Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”?

Here are some thoughts, humbly shared, with full knowledge I am treading on very hallowed ground.

Why did Jesus die such a horrific death? 

Because when a man is so completely full of love, so full of God, that brings out the worst in a world that is dominated by selfishness and grasping for power. Jesus knew that his time of traveling freely and speaking the amazing news of God’s Kingdom would be short, because it would threaten the status quo of both religious and political leaders. And these leaders had too much at stake to allow the message of love and forgiveness and unity to take hold. So those same religious and political leaders conspired to do away with him and his message.

He died on a Roman cross because that is how those who claimed to be Lord were killed by the Romans in the time that Jesus walked the earth. But more than just that, Jesus died that horrific way because it was in keeping with his entire earthly existence. He was born in a cave or a stable to poor peasant parents. He grew up outside of the important places of power, and was a Jew, living under the thumb of the powerful Roman empire. He spoke inside Jewish synagogues sometimes, but was better known for his open air working of miracles, befriending of outcasts, and His breaking of social norms in his actions and  words. He identified fully with the human experience in all its joy and pain to make sure everyone knew God’s love was real and available to them. And so, he experienced the worst that humans had to dish out. 

In the final week of his life he entered the city of Jerusalem not on a majestic steed but on a humble “hee-haw” donkey.  A few days later he was betrayed by one of his closest followers, Judas. He was abandoned by all his disciples, and Peter, who tried to stay close, actually ended up denying any relationship with him. He died, naked and bleeding, in one of the most horrible public spectacles ever invented by human cruelty. Why? Because he fully identified with every man, woman, and child on the planet, and he submitted to humanity’s worst to show that even these acts of cruelty could not defeat love.

And when he showed up again 2 days later, alive, he showed to all who could comprehend it that there is life after death. He showed that the worst cruelty would eventually be defeated by the greatest love. In short, he demonstrated that Love Wins (thanks Rob Bell).

Is Easter worth celebrating? Without reservation, yes! The death and resurrection of Jesus remind me of the great love of God, the complete identification Jesus made with the joy and pain of the human experience, and the power of God to bring new life out of death (whether actual or metaphoric). 

There is enough in that last paragraph to make my heart rise up in worship, to inspire the desire to be more like Jesus, and to tell people about the great love of God who is not far from us, but intimately near. Not an angry God who needed a human sacrifice to forgive us of our sins, but a God who so desperately wanted to show humans what He was like that He came and lived among us, died at our hands, and rose again as the victor over sin and death.