The Cross and the Resurrection are Great Equalizers

The Cross and the Resurrection are Great Equalizers

 

Lately there’s been an increasing amount of attention paid to things that separate us – the color of our skin, the size of our pay checks, the places we were born, and so on. This kind of distinguishing is not new, of course, as it seems to have been a part of human nature since the very beginning of time (wasn’t the first sin about people who wanted to know as much/more than God, after all?) I’ve been struck this Holy Week and Easter, however, by the realization that the cross and resurrection don’t make any distinction at all between people. We ALL need them – no matter what we look like, or how much money we’ve got, or where we came from, or what we’ve done with our lives. The redemption and hope we’ve just re-enacted in retelling the story of our salvation history are beautiful truths that have changed us ALL, and in the face of these we are equal.

As I plumbed the depths of this train of thought even further, I realized something else of great importance. Our Lord’s sacrifice on the cross of Calvary has already happened (as a favorite childhood hymn proclaimed, “once, only once, and once for all”) and Easter’s empty tomb has already happened too. We are not waiting for these, as we stand waiting for Christ to come again, and so we needn’t (perhaps, shouldn’t) be waiting to be equalized either.

It occurs to me that we should be living NOW as if we have already been made equal by the death and resurrection of Jesus … because we have! While there will always be things – of varying degrees of significance and importance to us – that make us different from one another (how boring would life be if there weren’t?) Holy Week and Easter mean that what is ultimately (eternally!) most important to us ALL is the same for each and every one of us. We ALL need what Jesus did for us, and we ALL need the promise that was fulfilled in his being raised from the dead.

What I think this means – at least what I’m going to try hard to make it mean for me – is that I need be be sure I look at ALL people as equal to me at the foot of the cross and the entrance to the tomb. I need to be much less concerned about what is different between us, and instead give thanks to God for the great Easter Truth that has equalized us! 

- Lisa +