The End of the Story

Hey everyone...
First...let me please please please apologize for the great amount of time that has passed since my last post. I've been decently busy, though that probably isn't the best excuse. But alas here I am. I keep wanting you write you guys but I keep learning new things in my faith and i want to share all of them and then because I have so many ideas none of them ever come. However, today was easy because it's Easter! :) What else is there to write about? :) 
Well, because we all know that it is impossible for me to write something positive, I will do my best not to break my streak. ;) However, I will do my best to put a twist to it to change it from negative to a POTENTIAL positive. Let us begin...


Do we belittle Easter? Hmmm...good question. Terribly easy answer. Yes. Guaranteed. We may go to church today, read the chapter about Jesus raising from the dead, change our status on facebook to something emotional about the significance of the day...but in our hearts...there is little joy. We put on our Easter smiles, but deep down there  we’re still upset about the way the world is. We still grumble and complain. And we still aren’t really excited for Heaven at all. 


Well to give it away...they entire point of this post is recapturing the mystery of Easter. What exactly it means. And just a clue...it’s not about marshmallow bunnies and fake grass inside of plastic eggs. You see...Easter is not an isolated event. So many times we don't prepare for this monumental day at all, and if we do, we don't prepare right. 


"Nu uh! I prepare right!" you say. I read the part about Jesus dying, even his ministry, shoot...I read the whole New Testament. Well...you may have. So, I don't wanna rule you out if you have. Let me put you to the test. I will list a series of tasks which you must have done in order to have satisfactorily prepared for Easter. Don't worry...there are only two steps. I hope you pass!!! Here goes...
1. You must have read the entire Bible this week.
2. You must have read every books about every event in history since the beginning of Earth.
Yeah...I didn't pass either. "Well, that's a stupid test!" "It's impossible to fully prepare!" Aha! You are correct. How could we ever prepare for such a day? But there is something you must realize. While this test is impossible, it is also true. Why? I love when you ask that question. Here is a small statement which HUGE implications. Ready?...me neither.


-Since the fall of man, every single event in history led to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ-


Did you get that? Read it again. EVERYTHING led to the Easter story. And I'm NOT just talking about the Bible. Everything. Gen. 3:15 (pretty much the beginning of your Bible) is the first prophecy of Jesus. God already had it planned. His story was already written. He knew that the Romans would be the rulers of the world at the time of Jesus. They had to be. If they hadn't of been, Jesus wouldn't have died on a cross (which was also prophesied). Just think of all the event leading up to the Romans gaining control. I could go on and on, but the point of this blog isn't to inform you but to open your eyes. The Easter story didn't begin the day Jesus raised. It didn't begin the day He was born. The Easter story begins in Genesis. Man sinned and someone had to pay the price. So often we break the Bible into a bunch of stories about different things. Not so. You can't even dare break it into two stories (New Testament and Old Testament). Don't you dare let anyone tell you the OT isn't VITAL to Christians today. Amid all the boring genealogies and weird commandments is a beautiful story playing out, the ending of which just maybe saved your life, and did save mine. 


I'm sorry for the density of this is such short writing. There is enough topic here to write a collection of books on, and I will be having a Bible study this summer wholly devoted to this topic, but maybe this will at least be enough to get you thinking. Genesis 1-2 is our prologue. We learn all the background info we need to understand what's going on. The fall is our major conflict. Man has sinned and needs a savior or they will be forever separated from God (anyone else got goosebumps at this amazing conflict). Plot...a man must come to save the day. But this didn't happen in a week, a month, a year, or a hundred years. Rather, for thousands of years the people of earth waited and waited and waited for the One who would defeat the antagonist (Satan and Sin) and save the maiden in distress (us). 


At last the prince rides to the towering castle to save the beautiful maiden. The reader is shaking with anticipation. But we freeze when we find out that the princess doesn't believe that he is the one who will save her. In fact, she tells the dragon guarding her to kill the prince. The reader is shocked, screaming at the idiot the princess is being. Is she blind? This is exactly the man she's always read about. But the dragon comes and fights a mighty duel with the prince, and eventually the prince drags the dragon over the edge of a cliff, and they both fall to their death. The reader is weeping. Yes, the dragon has been defeated, but so has the prince. 


But then...just when all hope was lost, we see the prince's right hand come over the edge of the cliff; then the other hand; at last the whole body. He has risen from the depths to save his princess. 


You see? The story didn't begin when the prince rode in. It began when the princess was enticed by the dragon, and captured (when Adam ate of the fruit). And we today are not waiting for the end of the story. Easter was the end. Today we are celebrating a happy ending to a horrible story. I hope this encourages you. So many people tell us that we are living in the "end times." In some senses sure...we are. But Jesus...He was really the one living in the end times. The end of the story. He defeated sin and death. There's nothing left to defeat. You and I are just in one great big epilogue. You know like a romance story when the guy and the girl go through lots of dramatic stuff...but on the last page of the last chapter, they kiss romantically under the moon? That's the part where you sigh, and grab a kleenex. The epilogue tells you that they got married, but you could really have closed the book without knowing that. You knew it was gonna happen anyway. 


That should be our attitude today. Our lover...Jesus...went off to war. But He won. He's back. The end. Prologue (James is sitting in Arizona on Easter break writing a bunch of people about how cool the end of the story is). :)
Given...it's a VERY long epilogue. But I think anything is worth the wait for my wedding ceremony with Jesus. 


Well...these were a bunch of jumbled thoughts and I hope some of them made sense. I really hope amid all today's activities you just remember the love of Jesus. Cliche as it is love is so amazing. Love. Love. Love. Wow. There's no way I'm falling asleep tonight. 


Happy Easter everyone!!!