Quite a few years ago, a friend introduced me to Tim Hansel. Tim is an adventurer who believes in leaving an air-conditioned car and running through Death Valley! He does other rather bizarre things all in the interest of adventure.

Tim is also a radical follower of Jesus who says things like this: "Jesus didn't save you to be safe!"

One of Tim's favorite stories is about one of his sons (when he was quite young) talking about the Easter story. As Tim and his son are discussing the importance of the story and its message, Tim points out that the story of Easter is powerful because the power of God which raised Jesus from the dead is said to live in each of his followers.

Tim's son responded, "I have been easterized!"

I think Tim's son is onto something. Too many followers of Jesus are happy to be sanitized (cleaned up to look good for God); but not enough of them have been easterized!

More of us need to practise the habit of the church: Get easterized!

There are two sides of the cross - the Good Friday side - the side nobody wants to talk about and there is the Easter Sunday side of the cross.

E - Eternal life is guaranteed
A - A New life is possible
S - Sin stains are washed away
T - The Victory over death has been won
E - Every day is resurrection day
R - Reunion with loved ones assured

S - Sanity comes to all who
U - Understand the power of new life
N - Now available to those who
D - Die to their pride
A - And turn their hearts and
Y - Yield their lives to the One who has defeated death by leaving the tomb empty

Easter for the follower of Jesus is a challenge - do you focus on the Good News of the Empty Tomb or do you focus on the Good News of the Cross and Good Friday?

Actually, you need to focus on both: the empty tomb makes not sense without the cross; the cross makes no sense without the empty tomb.

Today is the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. In the Church calendar this is the day of reflection on the solemnity of Christ's death.

So I want to remind us of the significance of the cross.

The Good News of Good Friday is this: Jesus died the death which all of us should have died. We are all people who have gone astray from God's standard. None of us are perfect. None of us have loved God with all of our heart, mind and soul as we should have. None of us have loved our neighbor as ourselves as we should have. We all stand in need of forgiveness. We are a broken, flawed human race.

So Jesus died so he could present us perfect before a holy, perfect God. None of us dare walk into God's presence except that we walk in made perfect by the death of Jesus on the Cross.

The promise of the Christian faith is that those who will humble themselves before holy God and seek his forgiveness will find it!

This is my favorite verse from the Bible;

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

"Confess" means to agree with God that you have failed his way of living.

This is a great reason to practice the habit of the church - Living on the Good Friday side of the Cross.

Over at Pro Tem's blog, she put up two questions. Here are my answers.

Why, at this time of year, do people display and actually LOVE to see Jesus hanging on a cross??

My answer: - What you are referring to is called a 'crucifix'. There are two schools of thought on this: many people don't think it is necessary to see Jesus hanging on a cross because he is no longer on a cross - he died, arose after three days and lives forever. I am usually of this school of thought. The second school of thought is that the crucifix reminds us of the 'cost of our forgiveness' - that God died on the cross for my sins. So while for some people it seems morbid or cruel or even 'wierd', I respect these people's view and right to wear a crucifix.

Do you really think God appreciates that we're keeping his only son hanging on a cross for display?

My answer: If the only reason people wear a crucifix (or an empty cross) is for 'jewelry' reasons, I think God doesn't appreciate it and quite frankly, is probably offended by it. As I noted above, if the cross is a reminder of the 'cost of our forgiveness' I don't think God is offended or upset. Now, having said that, I hope that we would also remember that Christ is risen and the cross is empty (just as the grave is empty). We do serve a risen Christ and we should remember that as well. I choose to wear a cross and not a crucifix because I want to remember that it is the power of the resurrection (St Paul's Letter to the Ephesians) that gives me life and victory over the power of evil.

How would you answer Pro Tem's questions?

ron