The Passion of My Jesus

Tomorrow is Easter morning... It's been a busy week for us- busy with normal stuff, busy with not normal stuff, and busy with Easter stuff. I have had numerous things to blog about, but no time to sit down and write... One of things I have been busy with, as I mentioned, has been getting ready for Easter. Making sure we all have our new clothes to wear to church, getting the Easter baskets ready for Silas and Eliana, stuffing eggs for our Easter egg hunt, baking Easter cookies, dying Easter eggs... You know, all of the REALLY important Easter stuff. (Note: sarcasm)

This is the first year that Silas, on some level, understands Easter. We have talked about why we celebrate Easter and have read the stories out of his little Bible. I want him to know that while getting an Easter basket and doing Easter egg hunts is fun, that is not what Easter is really about... Yet it's something, that as an adult, I also so easily forget. I was looking at my sister's twitter tonight as I was taking a break from my "to do" list to feed Levi. I saw a response she posted to someone which said: "We've decided to forgo an extended family get-together this Easter. The stress melted away. Now I can focus on Jesus." And it was a reality check for me. Easter isn't about all of things I have let myself get wrapped up in the last few days- it's about my Jesus.

So after the kids were in bed and the kitchen was cleaned up from egg dying and cooking baking, I needed to start ironing our clothes for church in the morning. One of the things I had wanted to do this week was watch "The Passion of the Christ." It never happened. So I decided to pop in the DVD while I ironed; I figured I would rather watch some of it then none of it. Well, to put it mildly, it consumed me. I watched the entire movie.

I don't think I have watched this movie since having children myself. Watching Mary, as she watched her son, beaten and crucified, I just sobbed. Literally. Thinking of my own children, I was struck with a whole new realization of the the cost of the cross. And then I would go from watching Mary to watching Jesus. And I felt my heart and spirit break and cry out, "That's my Jesus!" And tears just rolled down my cheeks. Jesus was a real man who lived and breathed like you and I. He was perfect, without sin. And this man, my Jesus, died for MY sins.

Easter isn't about Easter bunnies and candy. It's not about some myth of a man who died on a cross. It's about my Jesus, who loved me (and all of mankind) so much that He willingly endured the cross so that all who believe in Him might have eternal life. And really? The cross was a torturous death- not a way that probably anyone would choose to die. Jesus choose it. That, my friend, is LOVE. Crazy Love. Love that makes no sense, humanly speaking. That was the passion of the Christ- the passion of my Jesus. I am so thankful that I serve a God who loves me with that sort of love.

As I celebrate Easter tomorrow (or I guess really today, since it is now past 2:00AM)... I will remember my Jesus- who died an awful, agonizing death on a cross for my sins. But the really magnificent part is what we celebrate on Easter. Not just that He died, but that He rose from the grave- that HE IS ALIVE.

Matthew 28:6- "He isn't here! He is risen from the dead,
just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying."

Happy Easter friends! May you the true meaning of Easter overwhelm you with gratitude and love for our Savior. And may His crazy love overflow out of your life and my life, to those around us, that they might see Jesus through us.