By Rod Benson
I picked up a bright, shiny Christian leaflet the other day, and the banner immediately caught my attention. “We are at a moral crossroad; it’s time to demonstrate the true meaning of Easter,” the flyer declared, advertising a nation-wide event scheduled for Easter.
It looked so cheerful and hopeful. But its religious content was at a rather low ebb, and it failed to explain which moral crossroad the sponsor had in mind. I guess I was simply supposed to know what it was all about. Perhaps I go to the wrong churches, or subscribe to the wrong media, or read the wrong bits of the Bible.
But the linking of moral crossroads with the public celebration of Easter in the flyer got me thinking: What has Easter to do with ethics?
Well, in a word, everything – if we’re thinking Christian ethics! The Easter story is the foundational story of Christianity. As we accept what God did for us in Christ, and identify with Jesus in his death and resurrection, God grants us a new life of freedom, assurance and hope. This new life is profoundly shaped by our obedience to Jesus. But what does such a life look like?
New Testament scholar and Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright expresses this well:
Jesus … calls us to share in his work of drawing out and dealing with the evil of the world; by loving our neighbours, both immediate and far-off, with the strong love that sent him to the cross; and by working out the implications of that love in our own vocations, whatever they may be, in our social and political action, in our relationships (and particularly our marriages and families), and in our caring for those in our midst who need the healing and restoring love of God most deeply.
We are called, as the people who claim the crucified Jesus as our Lord, to seek out the pain of the world, and, in prayer, in patient hard work, in listening, in healing, in announcing the Kingdom of this Jesus by every means possible, to take that pain into ourselves and give it over to Jesus himself, so that the world may be healed …
With the cross as the underlying story of our lives, validated by the resurrection and then implemented by the fire of the Holy Spirit, we can have the confidence to take on the world with the sovereign love of God.
The great Gospel events – the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus – are the foundation of the Christian faith. But Christianity is much more than assent to certain doctrines, or even participation in a particular faith community. To be genuinely called a Christian – which is about as high an honour and as demanding a responsibility as one could imagine – is to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus and to shape our lives in radical obedience to his will and words.
That necessitates getting our hands dirty in the cesspools of this world, identifying with people not at all like ourselves, going without a coat or a meal or a second mortgage when situations demand it, taking on issues that seem beyond us and problems that appear insurmountable, and becoming more and more like the Lord whose name (and whose grace) we have accepted.
Do you have the confidence to “take on the world with the sovereign love of God”? If you’re doubtful, you might just find (or rediscover) that confidence and love this Easter, as you gather with the faithful to celebrate the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, who calls each one of us to follow him into the unformed and unfathomed future.
Rev Dr Rod Benson lives in Sydney and writes about a range of topics from books and local history to food, faith, philosophy, ethics, research skills, and everyday life. Away from the keyboard, he enjoys cooking for friends, walking in the Australian bush, exploring a beach, discovering new restaurants, and reading philosophy, fiction and poetry. He is married to Emma and is minister of North Rocks Community Church, a Uniting Church congregation. This is an article he wrote for Easter 2007.
Reference
N.T. Wright, The Crown and the Fire: Meditations on the Cross and the Life of the Spirit (London: SPCK, 1992), 104-106.
Image source: Magnific
