𝐈𝐓 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒:

“He is risen.”
“He is risen, indeed.”
So goes the exchange every Easter.

But, why does it matter that Jesus is risen?

Being neither a theologian nor an apologist, I will simply tell you why it matters to me.

Every other god or leader to whom people have historically looked for life and meaning has now returned to the dust from which they came, their remains at rest somewhere on this planet.

Not so with the One to whom I look.

I serve, I love, I trust, I worship… a risen Savior.

All the circumstances, events, and happenings of my life, from the momentous to the mundane, are anchored in a Savior who lives. A Savior who tasted death vicariously for me, but then conquered it decisively.

The feet that walked on water took the nails.
The hands that cup my face bear the scars. These relics of redemption, these souvenirs of salvation, bear silent, sacred witness to just how far Love was willing to go to see us rescued and reconciled.

In His rising, grief was not erased, it was redeemed. Suffering was not forgotten, it was transformed.

Moved by our plight, Jesus came to us as one of us.
In person as a person.
The lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Our Christ.
Our Savior.
The Mediator between God and man who entered into the fullness of human pain and called it His own.

Only a God who has known suffering can rescue us in ours. And He fully immersed Himself.

Absorbing the entire spectrum of pain, betrayal, and degradation, He partook.
Willingly.
Completely.
He drank the cup to the dregs, sparing Himself nothing, to ultimately spare us everything.

Compelled by love, He took our place and nothing was ever the same again.

But (and this is an important distinction) not only did He bear the penalty of our sin, He bore the weight of every wound.
Every injustice suffered.
Every betrayal endured.
Every sorrow carried in silence.

As our co-suffering Savior, He entered not just into our guilt, but into our grief. Not just into what we have done, but into what has been done to us.

He did not stand at a distance and declare us forgiven.
He stepped into the fullness of our pain and made it His own.

And by His stripes, not only are we pardoned, we are healed. Our wounds were met in His.
The scars we carry are not unseen.
The marks we bear are not beyond His reach.

Because He carries scars too.

What was accomplished by His wounds reaches far beyond them to what we celebrate both at Easter and every day that followed:

Ancient prophecies were fulfilled.
The curse of death was neutralized.
The tyranny of sin was subdued.
And access to God was granted beyond a veil that was literally, and symbolically, torn in two.

Our approach welcomed and our reception guaranteed, fear is now replaced with boldness.

Reticence is now relieved by an invitation soaked in the blood-stained assurance of a Great High Priest who knows exactly how we feel.

No longer content with distance,
no longer afraid to draw near,
we leave the outer courts in search of Him.

Only Him.

We don’t dawdle.
We don’t waver.
We don’t doubt.

Because if the resurrection proclaims anything at all, it is that our trust in Him was never misplaced.

My Jimmy knows this now.
So does my daddy.
What they once believed by faith, they now behold with their eyes.

And one day, I will too.

He, “the Resurrection and the Life,” is who He said He was all along: The Christ. The Son of the Living God.

Every “I Am” statement He made was proven true with His resurrection. In this, our hope was made manifest and our redemption secured.

And He, the Way who made a way, comes to us still, offering life where there has been death, joy where there has been sorrow, and purpose where there has been pain.

Only a risen Savior can do that.
That is why it matters.

“The wounds of Christ are the wounds of love.”
~ 𝐒𝐭. 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐮𝐱

“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tested like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
𝐇𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝟒:𝟏𝟓,𝟏𝟔

He is risen.
He is risen, indeed.

Help yourselves to His mercy.
Drink deeply of His grace.
Bask freely in His love.