If Easter isn’t Everything, then Everything is Meaningless: An Ecclesiastical Mediation on the Resurrection
This world, our world, is filled with many wonders. Mysteries and treasure hunts at every turn that entice us to find something powerful, true, and beautiful – something to make meaning of our lives. And if we are those who deny that life has meaning, we look for frivolities and pleasures to soothe our aching souls as they wait for decay. We look for ecstasy and pleasant feelings in our hunts and endeavors. We strive to climb Maslow’s peak and sit at the summit pondering, obtaining, and expressing our self. So many people summit this climb and find their efforts are endlessly in vain as their prize sifts through their fingers, wafts away like smoke. Everything is meaningless.
Everything is meaningless…unless everything He said is true.
So, we say, ‘I’ll just enjoy what I can until death.’ As the Teacher says, “A person can do no better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil…This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (Eccl 2:24,26b).
How easy it is to take this path! This way is broad and comfortable. How easy for ‘followers of Jesus’ to enjoy their freedom of soul (1 Pet 2:15-17) and relax in a caravan on the broad path to destruction. We say, ‘I am a good person. I am taking care of my family. I work hard at my job. I am nice.’ All the while we flow with this downstream crowd never turning to the left or the right to share this Truth: Peace is meaningless without redemption.
Easter is a celebration and time of rejoicing for those who have ears – for they hear. They hear the Good News and rejoice in their salvation. We praise God and remind ourselves that our every pursuit is meaningless except that it points to Jesus’ resurrection. Our filthy rags that we obsess over each day, our small contributions, our little offerings; all pail in comparison on this day – but shouldn’t this be so every day? Without a savior, they too are meaningless.
Every generation forgets the last. Save for the fortunate handful etched in stone memorials, we don’t remember even our own great-great grandfathers. Our great deeds, our kind acts, our filmed sermons, our little online posts; all this is meaningless – but for the arrows we draw in the sand that point to the cross.
We write, we preach, we vote, we teach, and all this is lost like smoke in our palms.
We fight for a culture when Christ died for our souls.
We establish our way and dig trenches instead of walking His Way and building bridges.
All this is meaningless unless we have redemption.
If you have ears, let them hear. Time is unrenewable but not unredeemable. This blessed day of remembrance and gratitude cannot pass without pause and repentance. It was repentance that gave us reason to sing. Yet our songs are meaningless without faith and faith shall be meaningless without obedience.
If this day is not everything, then everything means nothing.
May a heart of sober, repentant gratitude and awe fill us to the brim. Everyday may we render ourselves as slaves to His cause (Rom 1:1). It is the hope of glory, not the exploitation of it now, which drives us. May our every breath be exhaled in conscious wonder of miracle of our existence. That we should prosper even as our soul does (3 John 1:2), so as a beacon we lovingly embrace the ones who journey toward meaninglessness. We call them home, on the narrow way, the only way, and say, this is the conclusion of everything:
Fear God and keep His commandments (Eccl 12:13-14). Love others and work their interests, not just your own (Phil 2:2-4). Always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:14-16).
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:8-10