Why We Worship | Jesus’ Death and Resurrection
This weekend is Easter weekend. We know it as a weekend of remembrance, of celebration. We remember Jesus’ death on Friday and celebrate his resurrection on Sunday. All I’ve ever known is that Easter weekend is the biggest “holiday” in the church. Sure, Christmas is there as well, but that gets celebrated by a lot of people, not just Christians. Christians celebrating Easter is like Americans celebrating Independence Day, right? It’s Christ-followers annually remembering the start of our true freedom found in Christ (which is more important than your freedom as an American just FYI, but that’s a different topic for another time).
I’m going to be quite frank for a minute here. What I truly want to see is that the world is reminded of Christ’s sacrifice, not because of an annual, traditional celebration, but because of the lives that exist as examples of Christ’s sacrifice. Everyone knows what Easter’s about, regardless of whether or not they’re Christian. The calendar knows that it’s time to celebrate Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, hooray! But what are you doing to display the reality of truth that provokes you to worship and celebrate? Attending the Easter service? That’s your display of this truth that we know?
Look, I know there’s plenty of history here. And I’ve heard it all. We dress up because God wants our best. We put on a grand celebration because he is worthy of it. True. But God’s glory is not received from our ability to celebrate Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection. We act more in the spirit of how we can see Peter behaving when we do this. Peter rebukes Jesus for speaking about his death, saying that this shall never happen! (Matthew 16:21–22) This is because Peter believes that Jesus deserves all the blessings, all the glory, all the honor because he is the Christ. And he’s not wrong. But what does Jesus say in return?
Carry Your Cross
But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.” (Matthew 16:23–27 ESV)
I’ve read this starting in verse 24 before, but reading it with the context of the situation with Peter has helped me realize what Jesus is trying to convey when he says, “you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (v. 23). Peter—and probably we too—can’t understand pursuing something that diminishes our earthly, material, fleshly circumstances. It is counterintuitive, right? We have a primal, survival instinct. So don’t get insecure about it, we all have it. But Jesus came to show a deeper perspective; a deeper way of life.
Now I’ve heard it said plenty of times about this verse, but it’s too true to not say. Willingly picking up your cross implies that you’re also willingly on a path to being killed. How literal you would like to take that is up to you. But the beautiful thing is Jesus, again, never asks something of us that he doesn’t first do. Jesus denies himself, and willingly carries his cross to death. He gives us THE example, once again.
Yes, displaying your life as a living example of Christ’s sacrifice is going to be difficult, and our fleshly urges are going to pull back every chance it gets. This is going to be more difficult than simply attending an Easter service. And no, I don’t think the life of a Christ-follower is ever going to be easy. Regardless of whether or not the values of this country’s political system ever line up with those of Jesus (which shouldn’t be our priority—again, a topic for another day), the life of a Christ-follower is going to be difficult. Not a weird, self-inflicted type of difficult, but rather the type of difficult that we begin to understand when we truly see what Jesus’ mission on this earth was.
Dead to Sin, Alive with Christ
Of course, we see similar teachings in Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:1–4 ESV).
So Jesus speaks of denying ourselves and picking up our cross to follow him. Paul talks to us about being buried with him and baptized in his death. What comes next? Paul says, quite logically but beautifully, that therefore we too might walk in a newness of life! What did Jesus say again? Those who lose their life for the sake of Jesus Christ will find it?
Denying ourselves of all the things our earthly mind wants is difficult. Carrying our crosses to the death of our sinful urges is heavy. But as is promised, this path leads to life. And how do we know for certain? I know I can get doubtful because it’s hard to see down the road, to know if it plays out how Jesus promises. But Jesus himself is the certainty. He leads the way in all things. And to repeat Paul, “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4) That’s why we worship him with our lives laid down. That’s what “resurrection Sunday” is about; that’s the purpose of it. A group of the Father’s children, following the example of the Son, to display his love to the world. The church can be nothing else, if it’s not an example of Jesus Christ.
So, this Easter and thereafter, with a freedom from sin, willingly pick up your cross, and follow Jesus to a newness of life. And, in doing so, display yourself as an example of Christ’s sacrifice, so that others may come to truly know him.
—Luke Soliwoda