PARK PLACE OF ST. JOHN Life Style
Chaplain’s Corner Unlikely
why the unlikely and inevitable occurred. It was the only way to rescue the human race, a race that had abandoned and rejected God in the distant past. God’s brilliant plan was to restore a personal love relationship with Him that people could never humanly achieve. How do we enter into this personal love relationship with Jesus? Romans 10:9-10 tells us: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.” This is where we start. A genuine realization that we are broken and cannot achieve this relationship by a million good deeds in a thousand lifetimes. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us it’s a “gift” we receive, not by “good works” of which we could “boast about” like wages we receive from employment. God is not for sale, nor is His eternal life. Upon confessing our brokenness and need, we acknowledge Jesus died in our place on the cross, a death we deserved. Finally, we totally commit ourselves to Jesus as both “Lord” and “Savior.” If this prayerful act is true, Ephesians 1 says the Holy Spirit will take up life inside us, and we will begin to experience the reality of Jesus. As we immerse ourselves in Bible reading, prayer, worship, giving, and serving, we begin to be transformed into a new creation, with the old self having passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17). In doing this, we experience Easter. That’s because it was never meant to be primarily a “holiday” we fill with colored eggs, candy-filled baskets, and white bunnies (as wonderful as these things are). In doing this, we don’t view our inevitable passing with dread or uncertainty. Instead, it becomes an exciting, adventurous transition from this broken world to a realm of ecstasy and joy. Jesus is waiting for you. Make this Easter a real Easter. Then the unlikely will become an amazing inevitable.
Today may be my last day on earth. No, I’m feeling great, and to my knowledge, I have no health issues. So why is it that I may pass away today? Because today—the day
you are reading this—about 9,000 people in the United States will die. 9,000! Yes, many die of heart and cancer-related deaths, but many die for no known cause. And a large percentage of those 9,000 who pass today are not elderly. Of course, we know passing away is not a strange fact but a certainty. Every single one of us will face a day on the calendar that will be our last. It’s inevitable. But unless we have a serious health issue or are at an advanced age, dying today is unlikely. As we face Easter this month, we come to a highly unlikely situation: the death of Jesus of Nazareth. Here was a peaceable teacher and miracle worker doing good. Although the extreme Jewish leaders were increasingly angry and jealous of him, he never criticized the Roman Empire’s oppressive and often violent treatment of the Jews (they crucified thousands). He even commanded his followers to “love their enemies and do good to those who mistreat you.” And even his critics couldn’t find any real failures to accuse him of. So, finding Jesus nailed to a cross seemed the most unlikely thing imaginable. Unlikely but inevitable. Inevitable? Why? Because he kept saying that was his goal. He taught that it was God’s plan. He had to die. But Jesus added another highly unlikely element. He said after his death, he would be resurrected. That, too, was part of God’s plan. Yes, the whole scheme appears crazy and absurd. But then again, God had proven through past ages that He operated in ways often quite the opposite of how people reasoned and acted. After the resurrection, Jesus’ followers finally understood
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