Easter is the celebration of our redemption. Through his death and resurrection Jesus overcame the enemy's power. He defeated sin, death and the devil and made losers out of the powers of darkness for all eternity. The Easter message is that Jesus is victorious! Without him there would never have been any possibility of redemption. However, thanks to his sacrifice and his triumphal resurrection, he has opened the way to God for us. Through his suffering he became the author of our salvation.
Jesus '“ the author of salvation
If we talk of salvation, it is his presence only that saves. Salvation does not come by registered post from heaven. Jesus not only brings it; he is salvation. It is about a living relationship with him. We need to be 'in Christ'. 'Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus' (Romans 8:1). 'Christ in you, the hope of glory' (Colossians 1:27). He did not found a religious system with orders that are hard to follow. He is the God of our salvation, not the Boss for whom we have to work hard to get salvation. 'It is God who works in you' (Philippians 2:13). Jesus only! He said, 'Come to me and I will give you rest' (Matthew 11:28).
Just come! He alone does the saving work. Unfortunately, many people do not like that. They want to boast about what they do to achieve things. Christ wants to give us rest when we turn to him but they make hard work of getting anywhere near him. Some churches have invented tortuous ways of getting to Jesus. People want some recognition, some appreciation as worthy saints. And so they make turning to Jesus a great achievement and their religion involves hard rules, hard labour, hard discipline, hard praying and fasting, hard self-denial, hard preaching and even hard pews. Some make it the work of a lifetime to get to him and think they can never be sure that they have actually done so. To me, that sounds rather cynical '“ 'If you come, you will find rest, but you'll need it because it's hard work getting to me.' Many only expect rest in the graveyard.
Jesus never suggested that such arduous processes were needed. All we need to do is accept him. His commands are simple: 'Come to me!' 'Believe in me!' 'Follow me!'
Jesus '“ the Word of God
The Bible prophets brought a message from God. Jesus brought no message from God because he was the message '“ the prophets' message. The prophets said, 'This is what the Lord says.' Jesus said, 'I tell you.' He was not inspired. He was the inspirer. He spoke through the prophets.
Mohammed called himself a prophet, a messenger sent by Allah. His first message, received at Mecca, is said to be the essence of the Koran. It has seven short lines. Number 5 is 'Show us the straight path'. No Christian needs to pray that prayer. Jesus is The Way. Hundreds of religions and sects point to their ways as Isaiah 53:6 says, 'Each of us has turned to his own way.'
Paul, the great-minded and great-hearted apostle, said, 'For me, to live is Christ' (Philippians 1:21). Our confidence is in Jesus himself, whatever doctrines we believe. We are judged by what Jesus is, not by a rulebook. 'All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23).
The Gospels are about Jesus and not a manual for do-it-yourself salvation. They show us that if he is there, anything is possible. One example is found in Luke 5:17. Jesus was sitting in a house and 'the power of the Lord was present to heal'. No one was healed, but the power was still there. Then a paralysed man with his friends broke in through the roof to get to Jesus. Jesus did not touch him but the man was healed and his sin forgiven. Wherever Jesus was, there was healing and hope. Luke 6:19 describes him in the foreign area of Tyre and Sidon; 'power was coming from him and healing them all'.
Nowadays, Christians are bombarded with hundreds of books, CDs and videos offering new prayer and faith techniques, new revelations and theories, and private revelations. Yet, Jesus spoke of faith with such simplicity: 'Only believe and you will see the glory of God' (John 11:40). Great Christians of the past were men of simple faith '“ but not simple men. We can look back to them for their spiritual example. They acted on the straightforward and uncomplicated conviction that God was with them.
The Lord God Almighty is not conditioned to react to some specific formula. People talk about moving God. We are not his movers; he is the mover. 'The Spirit of the Lord began to stir him' (Judges 13:25). 'Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit' (2 Peter 1:21). Being of use to God does not begin with a wrestling bout. It starts with resting in him because he is All in All. 'My presence will go with you and I will give you rest' (Exodus 33:14).
Jesus '“ the healing presence
Let us take a look at the incident in Luke 8:43-44 of a woman healed from what is referred to as 'bleeding'. The whole point is that Jesus took no action whatever. She got near to him, did no more than reach out a finger to touch the edge of his clothing and instantly felt restored. She had found the secret. Power and healing pervade his presence. We need no special techniques or spiritual gymnastics to be healed. That is seen in Mark 6:56: 'They placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.' None of them was a religious athlete. They just got near to Jesus.
The healing of that woman does have one very touching feature. She was not only sick, but also a social outcast. Her haemorrhaging made her unclean and nobody wanted anything to do with her because she could make him or her unclean, too. She was a pariah. Leviticus 15:19 states that if a woman has a discharge of blood, 'anyone who touches her will be unclean'. That woman knew that by touching Jesus' clothes, she would make him unclean, but she thought that no one would notice. However, Jesus knew in an instant. He felt healing power flow from him and asked, 'Who touched me?' The little woman was startled and felt terrible. She had not reckoned on that. If he knew she had touched him, he would know that he had been defiled. So she hid in the crowd. But Jesus kept on asking who had touched him. In the end, she came forward in fear and trembling and admitted the truth about her sickness and why she had touched him.
Jesus knew that people would not have anything to do with her. She looked so bloodless, pale and sick. All her money had gone to doctors so she could not afford a proper diet to treat her anaemic condition. When she stood shaking in front of him and he heard her story, there was no anger or reproof. He blessed her: 'Your faith has healed you. Go in peace!' (Luke 8:48). If she defiled him, he cleansed her. That is what Jesus is like! Always! He takes our uncleanness and gives us his purity. 'God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God' (2 Corinthians 5:21).
A Roman scholar, Pliny the Elder, who lived at the time of Christ, recorded what people said about women with a haemorrhage. They were considered a threat. Their condition could cause all sorts of evil things: turn new wine sour, cause fruit to fall from the trees, hives of bees to die and dogs to get rabies. If a woman like the one in the story so much as glanced at a baby, it would be poisoned. The poor woman who touched Jesus knew all that. We can well imagine how bad she would feel about fingering Christ's clothes.
When Jesus said to her 'Your faith has healed you. Go in peace!' he revolutionised every idea of God that existed. To Jewish people, Yahweh was an awful transcendent being. He could not be approached except with the greatest care. Even priests had to observe scrupulous conditions of ritual perfection. Then Jesus came and the power to heal simply flowed from him, even to the untouchables.
The Gentiles had even less idea of God. They thought that he was some kind of unknown cloud of power, but without feelings, indescribable and changeless. This 'something' was so pure that it could have nothing to do with mortal flesh or with the material world. It was passionless and unreachable. Yet the Son of God took on human form and, although he was God, embraced even the lepers. We see God as he really always was from all eternity '“ full of pity, love and power. When the trembling hand of a little outcast woman touched him, the truth flashed out that would change the world: God is love.
When one considers this story, one realises that the most outstanding truth was not the miracle but that Jesus accepted the woman as she was and focused the extent of his deity on her, an unwanted scrap of broken humanity. The Prince of Glory was anxious to talk to one forgotten soul.
When we talk about the presence of God, we mean the presence of God with us, not just his presence filling heaven. His presence is heaven. He brings heaven into the lives of ordinary people.
CfaN holds gospel campaigns in some of the poorest countries on earth, where some people may own nothing more than a blanket. The crowd may consist of a hundred thousand or more of the poorest of the poor, but God again and again comes upon them with extraordinary blessings. He has a special interest in every individual, lifts them out of the mire and makes their lives meaningful. Jesus said, 'The good news is preached to the poor' (Matthew 11:5).
Whether we are dealing with a sick woman or a masterly Paul, an Augustine, Luther, a king or a peasant, the core of Christianity is simply the presence and the closeness of Jesus. He wants to have fellowship with you and me.