I am not Christian – as I am a non-theist. But I was raised Christian, and I love many of its stories – especially the stories in the New Testament and the loving Jesus myth. Easter is one of my favorite stories, because it tells the story of a loving God who can forgive humanity – even at great cost to God herself.
At one level, Jesus – God’s son – enters the world to share God’s word and God’s love. God sends her son into the world out of her love for us, the people of the world. When Jesus is allowed to be killed by the Roman Empire, it is a sacrifice on behalf of people – one made by God for us. Imagine this, God loves us so much that she sacrifices her son for us. And because of this sacrifice, humanity’s original sin can be forgiven. Through this, God reorients herself in relation to humanity. We can be born again, through the love of God. Christ saved us – even though we killed him. How much more loving can God be than this?
That God would care enough to send her son into the world, tells of great interest in us – the people created by God. And then that she’d let her son be sacrificed in order that humanity could be saved, this tells of such a loving and forgiving God that monotheism would be forever changed. God’s love would be a central theme (or tension) of monotheism from the first Easter forward.
At another level, Jesus does not die. God did not really kill her son (by allowing humanity to kill Jesus) since she must of known that Jesus would resurrect from the dead. Yes, God had never experienced death, and that alone was a lot to bear for her son. But he doesn’t die for good. Which for humanity is another wonderful gift from God. Now God will always know what human life is – through her resurrected son. We can now be as close to God as never before. And this is wonderful, given how loving our God showed herself to be on the first Easter.
I love this story. I love this God. I love that Jesus came to teach us of a loving God. A God who cares about humanity. And I love that God sent her son into the world, got to know us, was willing to allow him to be scarified so that humanity could be free of sin and guilt and also let Jesus live for all time.
The Easter story is so much about life. And love. And forgiveness. And the unknown. It is a wonderful time for reflection on justice, love, and life.
