Keeping Jesus in the centre this Easter

Easter time is often a full time for people, whether you are Christian or not. In Australia, it is the only four-day weekend on the annual calendar. It often falls near school holidays as well so those with children have a change of pace. Many have family gatherings or a weekend away, and Christian people or those sympathetic to Christianity often go to church services.

What can easily be ignored in all of this is Jesus. I know that sounds a little odd because Easter is the annual festival that celebrates Jesus’ death and resurrection. Many people don’t even know that fact – I recall asking random university students what Easter was about and a large proportion of them had no idea. Even if you are a Christian, however, and you go to church twice on the Easter weekend, you might not really focus on Jesus all that much.

If you’ve been a Christian for a while, the sermons you are likely to hear on Good Friday and Easter Sunday probably won’t contain any information you do not know. In fact, you might know the story so well that you could give the sermon yourself! The old, old story of Jesus and his love is indeed an old, familiar story to many of us. So it is possible to go along, kind of listen, sing the great Easter songs, then never think about Jesus again for the weekend. Maybe there is football on TV.

This reflects a danger we face with moving Jesus to the sidelines of our lives without ever really meaning to. It’s not only an Easter problem. It is a danger that comes from a few different directions:

• The danger of idolatry. While Jesus is our whole life when we first become Christian, we can subtly shift over time to having other things in the centre. We can move to thinking mostly about our career or our family, our money or our entertainment. The love of Jesus might still be something we appreciate, but it is kind of taken for granted and moved down the priority list of our lives.

• The danger of busyness and distraction. As our lives fill with all kinds of things, Jesus might be a casualty without meaning to. We mean to read our Bibles and pray, but that assignment is due tomorrow. We mean to serve at church more but Sunday is the only day to run those errands we didn’t get to during the week. Without meaning to, Jesus has become less important so easily.

• The danger of focussing on our own works. In Galatians 2:21, Paul notes that if we could be right with God by our own works, then Christ died for nothing. Yet we often spend our time focussing on what we need to do, living as activists, rather than simply rejoicing in what Jesus has done in our place.

This Easter, remember that Jesus is the centre of our lives and should always keep that place in reality. We are only God’s children due to Jesus’ death and resurrection in our place. We only remain in God’s love and have a secure hope in the future due to Jesus’ work that we are remembering at Easter. It is all Jesus and only Jesus.

Happy Easter! May this coming weekend be full of thanks and praise and reflecting on the One who died in your place, achieving what none of us could ever do.