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Here’s an interesting question to ask someone: if God were to suddenly appear before you, how would you react? How would you receive him?

I think most people who are not believers would say that they would be honored by the visit, awed by the appearance. Some might say they would be hospitable and make God feel welcomed. Or maybe they would say they have lots of questions they would want to ask him. And perhaps the more cavalier would say that they would have a word with the Almighty and present their grievances and accusations.

As Christians, we know what would happen if God were to suddenly appear among us. We would kill him.

We know this because God did appear before us. He took on human flesh and lived among us. And we killed him.

Peter tells the crowd in Solomon’s Portico shortly after the resurrection, “and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.” (Acts 3:15).

This is the first shocking thing Easter teaches us. We humans killed the very Author of Life.

And we would do it again.

We like to imagine we are equals with God, and we would make space for him at our table. Or we think we are submissive to God, giving him due honor. Or we believe ourselves superior to God and fantasize ourselves as prosecutors of the Holy One. 

We are none of these things. We are God’s enemy, we are in rebellion, we harbor hatred for him in our hearts and we wish to kill him.

So that we may finally and fully become gods ourselves. Accountable to no power but our own desire.

But the second shocking lesson that Easter holds for us is that we cannot kill God, try as we may.

We can write manifestos about the death of God, put on subversive plays, blaspheme and desecrate sacred traditions, belittle those who say they believe in God, conjure theorems that claim things happen by themselves, and live as if there is no monarch behind the universe.

But we cannot kill God.

We tried, and it didn’t work.

The Prince of Life is more powerful than death itself.

Death is the denial of life. And the Source of Life will not be denied.

And that leads us to the third surprising lesson Easter teaches us. Death is not the end. It’s easy sometimes to believe that the biggest reality we operate under is that we will one day case to exist, and therefore we should either enjoy yourselves as much as possible or try to leave some sort of legacy.

But we will live on, even after we die.

We know this, because the God we killed, Jesus Christ, told us he had the power of eternal life and he would prove it by rising from the dead.

And he did rise from the dead.

Peter tells the crowd in Solomon’s Portico, “To this we are witnesses.” Multitudes have willingly been martyred for upholding Peter’s declaration that Jesus rose from the dead. It is the singular claim in human history. No one else has said they would rise from the dead and then have ample witnesses assert that they did.

Jesus rising from the dead changes everything. If death is not the end, then the most important question in life is not how do I maximize this little bit of time I have among the living? No, the most important question becomes, how should I relate to this God who has proven I cannot kill him, who has shown he has power over death, and has told me he will see me after I die and judge me?

Now we arrive at the most shocking thing about Easter. The very God we tried the kill, the one we resent, the one we are at war with, willingly died so that we, yes we, these foul ingrates, these rebellious creatures of His, “may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10).

We go back to the first lesson: God is the Author of Life. We reject God’s authority and in doing so, we reject life itself. We imagine this life we have some out of nowhere, that somehow it belongs to us and we are in charge of it. But that is not true. Our life has an Author, and when we rebel against that Author, when we sin, what we are in fact doing, is summoning death.

But the absolutely incredible thing about Easter is that the Prince of Life, wants to gives us life again, a new life, a better life, a life where we are united to the Fountain of Life, where we no longer want to kill him, but want to share in life with him. An eternal life.

And to do that, he willingly took on the death, the anti-life, the sin, that we continuously heap upon ourselves, he took that death and put it to death.

So that we may live.

To receive this new life, we must recognize ourselves for who we are: doers of death. And we must acknowledge Him for whom He is: The Giver of Life. And we must lay down our arms, cease our rebellion, and surrender.

Jesus declares to Martha, before the tomb of her brother Lazarus, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26)

And then he asks her a question, “Do you believe this?” 

This is the question we must all answer for ourselves.