Extravagant Love!

After the Sabbath, as the first light of the new week dawned, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to keep vigil at the tomb. Suddenly the earth reeled and rocked under their feet as God’s angel came straight down from heaven, and came straight up to where they were standing. He rolled back the stone and then sat on it. They were so frightened, they couldn’t move. The angel spoke to the women, “There is nothing to fear here. I know you are looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. He is not here. He was raised from the dead just like He said. Now get on your way quickly and tell His disciples. “He is risen from the dead, He is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see Him there. Matthew 28:1-7 selected verses

Easter comes to give us a fresh revelation of God’s love for us so that, as Paul says, “we will be able to take in the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love.” The word extravagant is defined as “going above all that’s expected or deserved.” On the cross, Jesus went to extravagant measures to show His love for us, and this love comes with no strings attached and costs us nothing.

What does His extravagant love look like? Picture the cross. If we were the only person who ever lived, Jesus would have still died just for us. The following story illustrates it perfectly.

In medieval times, a priest in a European village invited his morning congregation to “Come back tonight for a special sermon about Jesus.” Curious, many came back that night to find the sanctuary in darkness and the priest nowhere to be found. As they groped their way to the pews and sat down, they heard the priest walking down the aisle to the front. When he reached the cross that hung on the wall, he lit a single candle.

Without saying a word, he lifted the candle to illuminate the pierced feet of Jesus, then His side, then one nail pierced hand, then the other. Raising the candle, he shed light on the bloodied face and the crown of thorns. With a puff, he extinguished the light and dismissed the congregation. Nothing more needed to be said. The words, “Christ crucified” and “for me” were evidence of His extravagant love for us.

The Easter message is that the crucifixtion wasn’t the end. Christ rose and lives to love us with His extravagant love. In Easter Earthquake, James A. Harnish explores the earthshaking promise of Jesus’ resurrection. “Easter Sunday shatters the power of fear,” he writes, “because Christ is risen, we no longer allow fear to dominate, control or manipulate us. We don’t remain imprisoned in the tombs of our past failures or buried under the weight of present anxiety. In the risen Christ, old things pass away and everything becomes new.”

“Easter is the proof that God hasn’t forsaken us and is present among us. The Resurrection contradicts the assumption that Christ resides on an etherea cloud in a distant heaven. Rather, we find him on the dusty road that leads to the real stuff of our ordinary world.”

“Jesus’ followers can find him everywhere. The risen Christ will meet us along the confused, chaotic, fearful paths of our lives and speak the same words the women hear at the tomb. Do not be afraid.”

This Easter let’s celebrate the extravagant love of Christ for each of us! Ponder the words from the hymn When I Survey The Wondrous Cross by Isaac Watts as we prepare this week for the betrayal, the crucifixion, and happily, the resurrection.

When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of Glory died. My richest gain, I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small, Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Happy Easter!