The Real Meaning of Easter | S2E9

What does Easter actually have to do with Jesus Christ, and what has culture added that was never part of the biblical story?

In this episode of the Dear God, Lettuce Pray Podcast, Santana moves past bunnies, eggs, and empty tradition to sit with the real weight of Holy Week. This is a conversation about the love of Jesus, the necessity of the cross, and why the death and resurrection of Christ still matter so deeply.

Through Scripture in the ESV, Santana walks through what Jesus endured, why nobody else could have taken his place, and what the gospel says to anyone who has ever wondered why Christ died for people who did not even ask.

This episode is for the person who knows the phrase "He is risen" but wants to understand the love that carried Jesus to the cross in the first place.

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Scriptures Referenced:

Matthew 21, John 13:1, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:10, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:22-23, Luke 12:34, John 10:17-18, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Deuteronomy 12:30-31, Mark 7:8

Transcript

Santana 0:01

Before we get to the cross, I want to say something plainly. Um, bunnies and eggs have nothing to do with the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like you will not find them in the gospel accounts, you will not find them at the empty tomb. You will not find Jesus telling his disciples to carry that into remembrance of him. Those things come from culture and tradition. They got attached to the season later, but they are not the story. And I think that matters because when people keep blending cultural traditions with the gospel, it becomes easier to treat resurrection season like a soft, decorative moment instead of the most costly act of love this world has ever seen. God has always cared about how his people worship him. Deuteronomy 12 30 through 31 says, Take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, saying, How did these nations serve their gods that I also may do the same? You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. And Jesus says in Mark 7 8, you leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. So when I say bunnies and eggs have nothing to do with Christ, I'm not trying to be dramatic. I am saying the story of Jesus is already holy, already weighty, already beautiful, and it does not need help from culture to become meaningful. So let's move all that to the side for a moment and come back to the actual story because the real story is more than enough. Jesus loved us, and I mean loved us in a way that most human beings do not even know how to process. I'm talking about a love that walked toward betrayal, humiliation, rejection, suffering, and death with full knowledge of what was coming. I'm talking about a love that did not pull back when people turned ugly. A love that stayed steady while everything around it got darker. And during Holy Week, as we come to a close of Holy Week, when you really look at how people treated Jesus leading up to the cross, you start to see two things standing side by side. One, you see how deep human sin runs, and two, you see how deep the love of Christ really is. A lot of people know how to say Jesus is risen. A lot of people know the resurrection language, the church phrases, and you know, people know how to celebrate Easter Sunday, but I do not think everybody really sits with what it took to get there. I do not think everybody really understands that Jesus did not drift into the cross. He moved toward it, he embraced it, he endured it because there was no other way to save guilty people. John 13 1 says, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. That line alone will preach. He loved them to the end. So what that means is that Jesus loved us through the misunderstanding. He loved us through the betrayal, the abandonment, the mocking. He loved through the cross. And I think sometimes people rush so quickly to the resurrection that they miss the weight of the love that carried him there. Because when you slow down and watch Jesus during those last days, what you are seeing is love in action under pressure. Jesus enters Jerusalem and people are praising him. Matthew 21, 8 through 9 says, Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Now that is a huge moment. And there's celebration, there's movement, and there's expectation. And as the week unfolds, you start watching the ugliness rise to the surface. Judas betrays him. Peter denies him. The disciples, they they scatter all over. Religious leaders are plotting, false witnesses are speaking, the soldiers are mocking, and people spit on him. People beat him. People called for the death of Jesus. And what gets me every time is that Jesus never stopped being worthy. Not for one second. He never met hatred with hatred because the problem was never him. The problem was humanity standing face to face with perfect love and still choosing darkness. John 1 11 says, He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. Do you know how painful that is? He came to his own and they did not receive him. And still, Jesus kept going. Now this is where the gospel gets so heavy and so beautiful at the same time. Jesus did not go to the cross because people had become lovable enough. He did not go because humanity had finally gotten itself together. Jesus did not go because people earned one more chance. Romans 5 8 says, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were still sinners, sit with that. He died for people still in sin. He died for people still blind. Jesus died for people still guilty. Jesus died for people still failing him in real time. That means the cross is not the reward for human goodness. The cross is mercy for people who could not rescue themselves. And I need people to hear that because the love of Christ is deeper than the way people usually talk about love. Because when it comes to us, when it comes to us humans, human love often waits for worthiness or for something to be reciprocated. Human love often wants a return. But see, Christ's love moved first. And I want to stop here because I know that there are, you know, I have a very diverse audience on the show. And that oftentimes includes uh skeptic thinking. I know that there are also some spiritually burned people listening. I know that there are people who hear Christians talk about the cross and think, okay, but I did not ask for that. Like, I did not ask for Jesus to die for me. And at one point in time, that was me too. I can be honest and say that. I didn't ask him to do this for me. None of us did. And all of that is true. People did not ask Jesus to die for them. That is actually the part of what makes grace grace. The cross was not humanity's idea. We don't even have the bandwidth to even think so profoundly. The cross was not a human solution. The cross was not a group project where people figured out what was needed and then sent Jesus on an assignment. The cross was God's mercy toward people who did not fully understand their condition, their guilt, or what justice required. First John 4 10 says, In this love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propriation for our sins. That verse answers the entire thing. Love did not start with us, it started with God. And mercy did not begin with human awareness, mercy began with God. So when somebody says, I didn't ask Jesus to die for me, the deeper question is, did humanity need atonement even if humanity did not know how to ask for it? And according to Scripture, the answer is yes. Because sin is not a minor flaw in the Bible. Sin brings guilt and separation and ultimately death. Romans 6.23 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So the issue was never whether humanity worded the request correctly. The issue was that guilty people before a holy God needed rescue, and there was no other sinless substitute. And that is why Jesus came. It's because God had the mercy to send him. And this is where people really need to understand what makes Christ unique. Nobody else could have stood in that place. There's not a single prophet, teacher, regular good man. Really no one born into Adam's line with their own sin could do it. Second Corinthians 5 21 says, For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. He knew no sin. That's why Jesus could do what nobody else could do. He was not dying for his own guilt. He had none. He was not on the cross because evil had outsmarted him. He was not on there because he failed. Jesus was there because there was no other way for sinners to be reconciled to a holy God. And I think that should humble us deeply because nobody else would have been qualified to take that place, and nobody else would have loved like this anyway. So you know how we hear people, and sometimes we say to ourselves, I wouldn't have got on the cross for y'all. Like I wouldn't have got on the cross for these folks, and I know this because I said this myself a time or two. And the truth of the matter is, it's true. We wouldn't have gotten on the cross. And that alone shows the difference in how Jesus loves us and how we love other people. And this part gets me every time too. Jesus is being hated and he does not become hateful. Jesus is being mocked and he does not become cruel. He is literally being wounded and he does not answer back with sinful vengeance. First Peter two twenty two through twenty three says, He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued in trusting himself to him who judges justly. That is holiness under pressure and in power, under control. That is love refusing to become the ugliness coming against it. And then Luke 23, 34 says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Who speaks mercy from a cross? Who is bleeding, humiliated, abandoned, and still prays for forgiveness over the people responsible? That is Jesus. And I think that is the part of why the cross should hit us so hard. It shows us what we are, and it shows us who He is. This is the part people cannot afford to treat lightly. What if Jesus had not gone to the cross? Then there's no atonement, there's no reconciliation, then guilty people remain under judgment, and then sin remains unpaid. Then there is no peace with God through Christ. There is no salvation that rests on anything stronger than human effort, and human effort was never going to be enough. Jesus says in John 14 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And Acts 4.12 says, There is salvation and no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. That is why the cross was necessary. And that is why his love matters so much. And that's why this season cannot be reduced to pretty colors and harmless little traditions, like the center of the story is soft and decorative. The center of the story is that the Son of God made a way when there was no other way. And I need this part to stay clear too. Jesus was not dragged to the cross as a helpless victim with no understanding of what was happening. He chose obedience. He chose the path set before him. John 10, 17 through 18 says, I laid down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. He laid it down. That means the cross was was not just something done to Jesus. There are people that says like, Oh, Jesus didn't die for us, y'all murdered him. No. John 10, 17 through 18 tells us in his own words, he laid it down. It was something Jesus willingly embraced in love and obedience. So when we talk about the death of Christ, we are not talking about a tragic accident at the center of Christianity. We are talking about the intentional, costly love of God moving towards sinners. And yes, thank God the story does not end at the cross. The resurrection matters because the one who died for sin got up in victory. First Corinthians 15, 3 through 4 says, Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. That is the gospel. And the resurrection shines brighter when you understand the kind of love carried him through the suffering first. Like Jesus actually showed it. This is deep, deep gratitude. The kind of gratitude that says, I was loved at my worst. I was loved in my guilt. I was loved when I could not make my way back to God on my own. I was loved by the only one holy enough to stand in my place. I was loved. I'm sorry, y'all, that this this episode has made me so emotional. Because it is amazing and a blessing and such favor to be loved in a way that Jesus loved us, and that is why Easter cannot be dismissed as just bunnies and eggs and Easter egg hunts and just cute churchy cliche phrases because Jesus was so much more than that. So during this season, celebrate the resurrection. Rejoice in the empty tomb and thank God that death did not get the final word. But please do not let culture crowd the cross out of the picture. Don't let traditions become louder than the biblical truth. Bunnies and eggs are not the story, but Jesus is. So please make your way back to John 19. Read Isaiah 53 and Romans 5. And when you sit with John 4, make sure you sit and read that slowly and let yourself really take in what it means to be loved like this. Remember to spread kindness and I love you. But there is really truly someone who loves you even more than that. Y'all take care.