What does resurrection mean? I love Easter more than most people, but I have to admit this question has entered my mind and it’s only a small part of the larger question. We celebrate Easter, but so what? Some guy Jesus was raised from the dead big whoop. He was sentenced to death hanging from a cross like many others and was raised from the dead as has happened a few times before.

I don’t see a problem here. Most of us don’t see a problem with this summation, but there’s a glaring problem with this account. It explains nothing about why Easter should be important. For those churchgoing of us, we’ve heard tales of being saved from sin, salvation and eternal life. To be honest, I don’t think that makes much of a difference down here in the trenches of daily life.

There has to be something more. Maybe I’m just playing devil’s advocate, however all the salvation talk and eternity is great, but today I can’t fathom a reason why that should tangibly matter. Then, amongst all the noise and the peeps, the truth hit me like one of those marshmallowy goo-ball-for-chicks being heated in a microwave.

God’s love isn’t about us. While salvation and heaven are awesome things to think about, I think our view of Easter falls short. Easter wasn’t about those ethereal gifts, but something far more tangible, yet unfathomable. While those I try to give thanks for every day, the real gift I am only beginning to grasp as its breadth is infinite.

God gave us Himself. Easter is about God coming down as a man, stooping to our depths and loving us physically, then giving up an earthly life so that we could experience Him forever and always. Easter is the consummation of that grand scheme. It is the storm after the two days of calm.

Heaven and earth rejoices. I could write forever about this and not have said a thing about how great God’s gift of Easter was. On Easter, God showed us forever a foretaste of how great and awesome He is. All the iniquity of the world from beginning to end weighed upon His shoulders. Even His own wrath He withstood. God did all this so that He might be reunited with His beloved creation. He withstood everything so that we might enjoy the greatest gift in the universe; that gift being Himself, the Ultimate Father.

Do we even care? No, by most popular accounts suggested by actions we don’t. It breaks my heart that I am in the majority here. Sure, it’s the day after Easter, but Jesus is just as risen today as He was a thousand years ago. We need to ask ourselves the question daily, “How does the death and resurrection of Jesus matter to me today?” If it does, then our actions will show. If it does, then you can stop reading now.

We’ve been given a gift we’ll never appreciate. We don’t have the facilities to fully appreciate this gift. The Alpha and Omega has made Himself freely available to us, yet we are confined to think about it in terms of what we get when we die. Easter isn’t about death, so much as it is about being truly alive at last. We can’t accomplish that with the Life. Later today, tomorrow morning, the next day, will you ask yourself, “What does resurrection mean?”