Growth And Sacrifice!

April 20, 2025, Easter

Growth And Sacrifice!

Happy Easter!

As I reflect upon what Easter means to me today, I keep coming back to two words; sacrifice and growth! 

Of course, the death of Jesus on the cross three days before He is raised from death to life on the Sunday we call Easter involved great sacrifice. 

There was the ridicule by religious leaders, harassment by politicians, and betrayal by close friends.  There was the thorns pushed into the scalp, whipping on the back, and carrying a heavy wooden beam across raw shoulders.  There was the nails in the hands and feet, the lack of water to drink, and the sword piercing up under the ribs.  Finally, there was death that most likely came by suffocation and exhaustion.

All the sacrifice broke through with the possibility of new life, real life, and abundant life when Jesus was raised from death to life.  The empty tomb upon which we focus on Easter is the promise that the way my life is today does not have to be the way my life will always be.

+Where there are places in my life that feel dead, there can be new life because Jesus was raised from death to life on Easter.

+Where there are places in my heart that feel dark, there can be new light because Jesus was raised from the darkness of death to the light of life with Jesus.

+Where there are places in my soul that feel hopeless and helpless, there can be hope and help because Jesus was raised from a death by Himself to a life meant to be shared with you and me.

+Where there are places in my mind that are stuck, there can be freedom and new possibilities because Jesus was raised from the dead-end of death to the new possibilities that come with life.

+I am grateful for the sacrifices Jesus made for you and me and the world in which we live. 

+I am grateful that my sin can be forgiven because of those sacrifices. 

+I am grateful that salvation and a restored relationship with the Lord God is possible because of those sacrifices. 

+I am grateful that pain and suffering and death do not have the last word in my life and our world because of those sacrifices.

At the same time, I am grateful that because Jesus lives today, I can continue to grow more and more into His likeness, more and more into His love, and more and more into His dream for me.  Easter means I can grow in this life of holiness to which we are called because Jesus was willing to endure the sacrifices that came before Easter.

While I am grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus and for the assurance Jesus is alive today, I find myself challenged.  On the one hand, I want to grow into a better person with Jesus helping each step of the way.  I want to be a more gentle father, a more tender spouse, a more faithful friend, a more devout follower of Jesus. 

On the other hand, there are times when I am not very interested in making the necessary sacrifices that will make that growth possible.  Sometimes I don’t serve the poor in my city, I don’t pray each day, I don’t attend worship with other Christ-followers, I don’t participate in a small group, I don’t fast, I don’t read my Bible, I don’t practice tithing (giving 10% of my income) to my church. 

Compared to the sacrifices of Jesus, these sacrifices do not seem very difficult.  And yet, sometimes I fall short of making the sacrifices necessary for growing my relationship with Jesus.  When I don’t make the sacrifices, I don’t see as much growth in my spiritual life, my relationships with other people, or in answers to my prayers.

I am encouraged by how others have made sacrifices so they could draw closer and closer to the Lord God.

In Acts 13:3 we hear; “Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.”

In Luke 2:37 we hear; “…then as a widow to the age of eighty-four.  She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.”

In Daniel 9:3 we hear; “Then I turned to the Lord God to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.”

In Malachi 3:8-10 we hear; “Will anyone rob God?  Yet you are robbing me!  But you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’  In your tithes and offerings!  You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me—the whole nation of you!  Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.”

In Matthew 23:23 we hear; “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.”

In I Peter 4:10 we hear; “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.”

I want to grow in my relationship with Jesus, in my relationship with others, and in my relationship with myself.  When I remember the sacrifices that Jesus and other believers have made, I am more and more able to live a life of holiness with Jesus my risen Savior.

With my sacrifices and the assurance that Jesus is risen, my heart will fill more and more with delight in the Lord.  May this Easter be an invitation to make whatever sacrifices you need to draw closer to Jesus while at the same time being filled with the assurance Jesus is alive and with you.

Take Delight In The Lord!

Doug