“He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” (Matthew 28:6)
My wife and I watched the movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” again last night in preparation to watch the new movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2”. I’m not advertising for them, I’m just remembering a portion of the movie that’s very important and wonderful. Toula is teaching Ian a traditional Greek greeting used at Easter. When two Greeks meet at Easter the first one says, “Christos Anesti!” and the other person responds, “Alithos Anesti!” In English, that would be "Christ is Risen!" with a response of "Truly He is Risen!" I love that! For truly, He has risen!
Christ died a bloody, horrible, lingering, vicious, unjustified and humiliating death – willingly – because he loved us and it was His Father’s plan from before linier time was ever created. We feeble minded humans can’t even imagine that kind of love. The love we understand as love is miniscule in comparison. Trying to describe God’s love for us (Christ’s love for us) in words is beyond our capabilities, but let me try to shed a ray of light on the subject. He loved us so much that he created a world uniquely tuned to our needs. He created the sun and moon to light our day and night and provide for our linier necessity of seasons and a sense of time. He created a universe of stars to guide travelers, display His majesty and creative power, and He did it all as almost an afterthought “…he made the stars also.” (Genesis 1:16) He provides for the necessities of life for over 7 billion people on this planet, all the billions that have lived before us and the possible billions to come. He gave us the amazing opportunity to choose who or what we will serve. He provided Christ Jesus to teach us, empower us and then died for us, to rise again on the third day, so that we could have eternal life and an eternal relationship with the Creator of everything – the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, self-existent creator of literally everything. Now that’s love…
Many people at this time of year take God down off of an almost forgotten shelf in a dark closet and unwrap Him for a day dedicated to Easter Bunnies, baskets, colored eggs and candy, and go to church for a day of pseudo-worship (false worship). That’s not how it’s supposed to be. God gave us everything, so why only worship Him on one or two days out of the year? He gave us His precious Son, so why ignore Him and focus on bunnies, eggs and candy? Those aren’t bad things, and I looked forward to them as a child, but I’m not a child any more. I know now that Easter is all about the loving sacrifice Christ made for me – that’s what it’s all about – so I’m going to serve Him every day of the year and honor and praise Him for his willing sacrifice every Easter.
Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! – Alithos Anesti! Truly He is Risen!