For the first time ever, I started using the idea that Easter was a revolution. It was a Three-Day Coup that ushered into history a change that will forever affect mankind. In fact, it was such a change, that it blindsided those who oppose God:
1 Corinthians 2:8 But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord.
When it had been completed, this coup took a Savior from a Cross and transformed Him into a King who will judge the living and the dead. This transformation introduced to the world, a solution no one else could have supplied. It was a solution for all people of all ages. It took only three days to bring into focus, God’s Grace, an insertion into mankind that changed everything forever.
Without the resurrection, there would be no Gospel. The resurrection started the timetable for God to establish the plans for a new world. Death, sin, and evil … all were defeated by this Three-Day Coup. God started the process to reclaim what the fall of man created in the Garden of Eden, with the sin of Adam and Eve.
Easter is not just a holiday where we search for Easter eggs, go to church, and have the family over for lunch. Yes, that is what we do, but it seems so anticlimactic, when in fact, Easter should be celebrated with fireworks, parades, and speeches about liberation. I know this may sound melodramatic, but isn’t it the greatest victory ever known to mankind? This Three-Day Coup overturned the balances of power on death, sin, and evil where they can no longer enslave anyone to their will and power. They were defeated … but not destroyed. However, the process for total destruction is yet to come. In the meantime, the power of God’s grace will sustain us until that day when all is completed.
The antidote for death, sin, and evil is Jesus. That is the message of this Three-Day Coup … all enemies of God have taken a knee to the One on the Cross. I find it appropriate that the One who gave His life for all of us on a Cross will be the same One who will be sitting on a throne, judging all the living and the dead on judgment day. If this Three-Day Coup had a subtitle, it would be, From a Cross to a Throne.
In all the wars that have ever been fought on earth since the beginning of time, all of them had a victor and a defeated foe. In all cases, the effects of these wars only lasted a few generations, but this Three-Day Coup was a victory that fired no shots, and there was only one victim who died. Better still were the results of the victory … it has an everlasting result, a One-Time Coup for all time.
With this image in mind, Easter will never again be the same for me. This quiet Easter revolution was in a faraway land but has been lived out for more than 2,000 years in Churches around the world. I am sure, at the beginning, this event was not the celebration of fireworks and parades here on earth, but I can imagine that in heaven, there was one big celebration with the theme … Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.
Challenging the Culture with Truth … Larry Kutzler