Easter is about Jesus

It is Easter week. Churches all around the world will be gathering to worship, probably on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. This catches the attention of the media in many places who ask local church leaders what they will be preaching about at Easter time.

Unfortunately, many of the church leaders in my city give unhelpful answers to that question. The liberal churches always answer with whatever the hot topic issue is in the culture at the moment. This year, maybe it will be violence against women or racism. In the past, they have preached about climate change or various policy issues around Aboriginal issues. When they do mention the cross or the resurrection, it is in the context of inspiring us to be better and to consider others.

That’s not the gospel. That’s a TED talk. That’s just telling people what they want to hear.

What will our church be preaching about at Easter time? We will be preaching about Jesus. Specifically, Jesus who died for our sin in our place, who was buried, and who rose again on the third day. In fact, this is not something we preach about once a year. This is our core message. This is what we preach week by week. This is what people need to hear.

The gospel changes the way we think about everything else, every major issue. And yes, we should unpack how trusting in the risen Jesus leads us to consider race and gender differently. We should be concerned for our planet. But Jesus doesn’t inspire us to ‘be better’; that’s not really good news. If that’s all we offer, it’s not much. Try harder and that will fix everything.

The truth is that trying harder won’t fix everything. We are in trouble with God, we break relationships with one another, and we cannot fix it ourselves. Jesus doesn’t just inspire us, though there are aspects of his example we can follow. Jesus did what we cannot do. Jesus died to make us right with God, not to inspire us to ‘be better’.

Let’s not be distracted. What the world is talking about is gender and race; what the world needs is Jesus. We need to hold out the wonder of Jesus to the world. Easter is one opportunity to do this among many opportunities all year around.

Easter is about Jesus. The church’s message is about Jesus. The Bible is about Jesus. Let’s not offer the world something inferior that is worth far less.