Easter is significant because Easter provides the opportunity to be freed from the power of temptation by following the example of Jesus life...

Today, we are going to finish answering a question that we began to answer last week surrounding the issue of Easter. And that question can be summarized in two words: "So what?" In other words, "Why should I care about Easter if I don't buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church thing?" And even if you are here this morning and consider yourself a follower of Jesus, is there something significant about Easter that we may be missing? While Easter is significant when I comes to how I can experience a relationship with God, is there something significant about Easter when it comes to how I live out my day to day life as a follower of Jesus that I might be missing?

In a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Hebrews, we discovered a timeless answer to the question “So what? Why should I care about Easter if I don't buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church thing?”And that timeless answer is this: Easter is significant because Easter provides the opportunity to be freed from the power of death through Jesus death and resurrection. You see, Easter is significant because Easter is about God the Father providing us the opportunity to be brought into the splendor and radiance of being adopted as a child of God through the suffering of His One and Only Son Jesus so that we could be insiders and a part of the family of God.

Easter is significant because Easter is about Jesus entering into humanity to become “one of us” and to proclaim God to us before dying for us. Easter is significant because Easter is about Jesus willingly entering into humanity so that His death on the cross would put an end to the power of the Devil to bring eternal death to those who were chosen by God to be rescued from their rebellion and become a part of the family of God.

 

And Easter is significant because Easter is about God the Father demonstrating His concern to help those of humanity who He has chosen to experience the fulfillment of the promises that He made to live in relationship with Him as part of the family of God that He would have His Son Jesus take on humanity and enter into humanity so that He could die for humanity. 

However, not only do we celebrate the reality that the events of Easter provide the opportunity to be freed from the power of death through Jesus death and resurrection. In addition, while Easter is significant when it comes to how we can experience a relationship with God, Easter is also significant when it comes to how we live out our relationship with Jesus in our day to day lives. We see the writer of Hebrews reveal this reality in Hebrews 2:17-18:

 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

Here we see the writer of Hebrews reveal for us the reality that for Jesus to free us from the power of death through His death, He had to be made like His brethren in all things. In other words, Jesus had to experience the human condition in its fullest sense so the He could demonstrate His connection, unity, and solidarity with humanity. The writer of Hebrews then explained that the reason why Jesus experienced the human condition in its fullest sense was so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Now to understand what the writer of Hebrews is communicating here, we first need to understand a few things. The first thing that we need to understand is what the writer of Hebrews is referring to when he uses the phrase “merciful and faithful high priest.” In the Jewish sacrificial system, the High Priest represented the Jewish people before God. It was the High Priest alone who entered into the Holy of Holies in the Temple on the Day of Atonement to offer a sacrifice for his sins and for the sins of the people.  This sacrifice atoned, or covered the sins that had been committed. God would see the atoning sacrifice rather than the sin so that the penalty no longer had to be extracted from the person who had sinned.

Now that leads us to the second thing that we need to understand, which is what the writer of Hebrews refers to when he uses the word propitiation. The word propitiation is a big, fancy, church mumbo jumbo talk word that refers to satisfying God’s right and just response to our selfishness and rebellion. Now with these things in mind, we see that the writer of Hebrews is revealing for us the reality that Jesus experienced the human condition in its fullest sense so that He could compassionately and reliably represent us before God. 

Jesus experienced the human condition in its fullest sense so that He could represent us on the cross in a way that satisfied God’s right and just response to our selfishness and rebellion. And Jesus experienced the human condition in its fullest sense so that He could represent us on the cross in a way that removed the guilt that came as a result of the selfishness and rebellion of humanity.

And because Jesus experienced the human condition in its fullest sense, the writer of Hebrews explains that since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. In other words, since Jesus experienced the human condition in its fullest sense; since Jesus character was tested through the suffering He experienced while here on earth; Jesus is uniquely able to render assistance to us in our times of testing and suffering.

You see, Jesus is fully aware of the testing that suffering places us through. Jesus is fully aware and is fully equipped to aid and assist us through the times of testing that suffering produces in our lives because Jesus has successfully passed the test of suffering. Jesus successfully passed the test of suffering in a way that put an end to the power of the Devil to bring eternal death to followers of Jesus who have been adopted into the family of God.

And Jesus is fully aware and fully equipped to aid and assist us through the times of temptation that entice us towards evil and away from God. We see this revealed for us just two chapters later in Hebrews 4:14-16:

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of  need.

Here we see the writer of Hebrews urge readers to respond to the reality that Jesus experienced the human condition in its fullest sense so that He could compassionately and reliably represent us before God, to hold fast to our confession. In other words, instead of bailing on Jesus to return to Judaism, the readers of this letter were to continue faithfully trust in Jesus.

The writer of Hebrews then explained that the reason why they were to continue to faithfully trust in Jesus was due to the fact that Jesus, as their high priest, can sympathize with our weaknesses. In other words, Jesus, having become one of us, can relate to being enticed towards evil and away from God. However, while Jesus is able to relate to the temptations that we all face, while Jesus was tempted in all things as we are, Jesus was without sin.

In other words, while Jesus was enticed to take a God-given desire beyond God-given design, Jesus never rebelled against God’s design. And because of that reality, the writer of Hebrews encouraged followers of Jesus to draw near to Jesus so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The writer of Hebrews is calling followers of Jesus throughout history to respond to temptation by boldly and confidently running to Jesus. We are to boldly and confidently run to Jesus so that we can experience His transformational activity in our lives in a way that results in us overcoming temptation.

You see, as we have talked about in the weeks leading up to Easter, Jesus provides us the example of how we are to overcome the temptations that we experience as we live out our day to day lives here on earth. We are able to overcome the temptation towards autonomy when we follow Jesus example of investing in close community. We are able to overcome the temptation towards popularity and individuality when we follow Jesus example of selflessly serving others in community with others. We are able to overcome the temptation to value something other than God supremely when we follow Jesus example of seeking to spend time in God’s presence.

And that is what is so significant about Easter that we often miss. Easter is significant because Easter provides the opportunity to be freed from the power of temptation by following the example of Jesus life. The reason that Easter is so significant is not just because of the death and resurrection of Jesus; the reason that Easter is so significant is also because of the life of Jesus.

 

A life that lived the life we were created to live but refused to live. A life that experienced the human condition in its fullest sense so that He could compassionately and reliably represent us before God without sin. A life that was enticed to take a God-given desire beyond its God-given design, but that never rebelled against God's design.