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Dear Friend,

This may seem a strange question to pose — but where is your god this Easter?

We all look forward to the four days of Easter from Good Friday to the Easter Monday Public Holiday.

If we are fortunate enough to work in a job that allows it, we have earned the four-day holiday and it is a wonderful break. If we are on Job Seeker, we are in a different place — probably hoping for nice weather just to get out of our routine search for work. If we have suffered the calamity of the recent floods, we will be desperately involved with clean-up, or searching for somewhere to live.

Life can be very good over the holiday break, or very hard indeed, depending on our circumstances.

If you have the money, you might go the Royal Easter Show with your family and friends, and this will be a welcome break. Or maybe, in spite of the Covid-19 outbreak in Queensland, you may be taking a paid holiday somewhere. Perhaps sport — golf, football, league, AFL or surfing — will be your focus. If you have children, you might be heading off to that special place for time out as a family camping, glamping or just mucking around.

But is Easter just about holidays, chocolate eggs, hot cross buns, or holiday activities of some kind? Is it only about you and what you want to do with family and friends?

What does Easter really commemorate?

Easter is our chance to remember a real live person — Jesus Christ — who was brought up in Nazareth in Israel, and who was put to an extremely cruel death by the religious and government leaders on what we call Good Friday, in Jerusalem.

Later in April, we commemorate the landing in Gallipoli on ANZAC Day, remembering the sacrificial death of so many young Australians who died to save us from the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires.

Jesus Christ did die, but unlike the men in Gallipoli, He rose from the dead on Easter Sunday.

So clearly, Jesus Christ was much more than just a good man who was horrifically and unjustly treated. His death was not to save just the nation of Israel. His death was to save all people from the judgment of God and our rejection of Him as God.

We call this sin. Sin is really rebellion against God. So when Jesus died, He did so to offer Himself for the sins of the world.

So where is your god this Easter?

Is it yourself and your goals and desires, your family and their needs? Or more than this, is it Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who went through hell at Easter to bring you to God, forgiven and blessed? He purchased for us a living hope that extends beyond the grave.

Will this Easter be a transforming event in your life and the lives of your family and friends — or just another holiday?

If this message has touched you, I encourage you to go to your local church this Easter and hear the story of Easter which can change your life both now and for eternity.