Easter Message

                                                              Holy Week and the Consummation of Bliss
                                                                                             or
                                                             Living the Truth While Experiencing the Lie
                                                                                             or
                                                                Living Easter: Changed by the Promise
 I am not a big chess player, I used to play quite a bit, but not anymore. Chess is a game of combination moves where planning ahead is the key to success. When I look at world history I can see how it can be perceived as a cosmic chess match in which God and Satan are seemingly locked in a close and anxiety-filled series of moves and countermoves.
 
We see it throughout Scripture: God makes a move, Satan counters with his move. God creates angels. Lucifer rebels against God and gets evicted from heaven, taking a bunch of angels with him. God creates people. Satan tempts them to sin, turning the earth over to his control. God responds by providing a sacrifice and assured redemption for His children, Satan sows seeds of doubt and tempts to disillusionment.
 
On and on it goes, through prophets and judges, kings and nations, onward through Incarnation until today. But in truth, this is not a battle between equal forces. Satan is the creature, God is the Creator and God has already announced Satan’s defeat,
 
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him (Revelation 12:9),
 
but that doesn’t stop Satan from trying to destroy God’s work and His people. Move, countermove, move.
 
After 400 years of silence, the promise of God is realized and God himself enters into human history. Still,  Satan counterattacks, tempting Jesus in the wilderness and trying to sabotage His mission. In the end, at least Satan thought it would be the end, he succeeds in destroying the Son of God. After what seems like forever in three years and an eternity in three days, Jesus is crucified.
 
Delusion, Hope and Truth
 
We know the end of the Easter story, of course. We celebrate Easter every year with our Sunday best and the retelling of Christ’s final move. The tomb would be empty, the board reset, the Son of God lives and begins to teach us how to live as well.
 
It seems incredible that, though defeated, delusional Satan still thinks he can win. He is cunning and crafty and does have some success in obscuring the truth, but it is more than that. Satan actually believes that he can take us, re-kill the Son, and claim it all for himself. St. Peter admonishes us to be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, resist he firm in your faith (1Peter 5:8-9a) as evidence of his efforts, but we know what Satan does not, he is already beaten. Still, we need a more complete understanding of what Christ’s death and resurrection have already accomplished for us and each year we repeat the celebration in the hopes that these truths will remake us in Christ’s image.
 
God’s Love
 
How often do you say, “I love you!”? Maybe it was just this morning, part of the farewell you tossed out as someone left the house. However it happens, you recognize that these words are not the only evidence of your love. Love is best understood when proclamation is backed by demonstration — your ability to meet the one you love where they are is evidence of sacrifice and devotion.
 
We understand love through action as we have learned from our Father in Heaven.  God lovingly provides for our needs and lends us His wisdom and direction every day. The Holy Spirit is a constant and unwavering presence reminding us and teaching us as Jesus said, But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you (John 14:26). 
 
Satan wants to draw us away from the reality of God’s love. It’s his oldest trick, getting humans to doubt the truth that God loves them. How does he do it? Helping us to believe that we are unworthy, unwanted, or unforgiven. We all know what this is like, don't we? We ask God for forgiveness, but we are unable to accept it because we can't/won't forgive ourselves. Since no one wants to live in a state of guilt, we passively believe that we are too bad to be forgiven and this is proven by God's silence on the matter. The truth is, God has already forgiven us; the lie is, we are too important to be forgiven. Move and counter-move.
 
Easter is the celebration where we embrace the reality of God’s love with renewed excitement and energy. Easter is the celebration that has the potential to change everything for us, even as the Resurrection changed everything for everyone for all time. We are called by the empty tomb, by the new day, by the shining truth to let ourselves die to self and rise to Christ. We can rise with Jesus to a new life of excitement and devotion as we praise Him by serving one another.
 
A New Hope Re-given  
 
In our family, we’ll often conclude prayers with “In Jesus’ name.” Do you pray the same way? It’s easy for it to become a reflex, a little tagline at the end of prayer. In truth, we are adding “In Jesus’ name” both as praise and as a cry for help. Implicit in our “In Jesus’ name” is our longing for Jesus to do all that he promised and for the ability to truly accept that as our reality. When you pray “in Jesus’ name,” be aware of the longing you have to die to self (the self that keeps telling you that you are unforgivable) and to be present to the fact that you have called on your Lord to be manifest in your life. 
 
The End of the Game
 
The only power Satan has over us is what we give him. We know he is a defeated enemy, crushed by the Cross. We know that Jesus suffered and died for us, that he took on our sin, guilt, trepidation, fear, and longing as his own to set us free. When you hang on to whatever it is that is separating you from Jesus, you are living as if Satan has won.   
I once heard a story about a father and son back in the pioneer days who were trying to outrun a fast-moving prairie fire. The fire was about to consume their wagon when the father turned the horse around and went to a spot that had already been burned. He told his son to jump out of their wagon and stay put.
 
His son said, “But the fire is all around us!”
 
The father explained: “This spot has already been burned. The fire can’t get us here.”
 
Jesus has already been “burned” at the Cross so that we don’t have to be. He has already won the match and in Him you are safe. There will always be temptations to sin. But Jesus has endured it all — temptation without failure, punishment without cause. The Devil’s fire can’t harm us as long as we are standing firm in Jesus.
 
Immerse yourself in Holy Week and be truly set free at Easter.  Satan has no countermove to stop what God has already done.
 
In Jesus Name,
Fr. Bill+