Devotion - Monday, April 9

I appreciated the question, left open-ended, in Pastor Shealy's sermon yesterday. It was her seven year old son who asked the question. It began with "Mom, if Jesus had not died would we still be here?" "Yes we would." Then came the real question, "Then what difference does it make that he died?"

What difference does it make?

It may have made a difference in your weekend. Some of you had visits from your parents, due to their Easter vacations. Others of you traveled to be with family and hustled back last night. A larger percentage than normal got up yesterday morning and found a place of worship. But these differences are not what seven year old Zachary was asking about.

What difference does it make?

The first answer is likely to be "Eternal life." As a result of Jesus' resurrection, we find hope for our own. This promise is very much at the center of our Christian teachings and life. Young adults know this, and confess this. But death seems to far away (seems so far away) that college students typically don't worry that much about dying and thus needing a resurrected life.

What difference does it make? In your life, now?

I would prefer not to answer the question, but to leave it with you and ask you to send me your replies. Would you do that? To get you started let me share what I most often find to be the differences which proves to be most appreciated by your classmates and peers.

In dying, Jesus destroyed more than merely death. He destroyed all those things which would seek our undoing. He showed us that being true and honest is better than scheming and advancing ourselves above others. Jesus' path to the cross allows us to see that betrayal and rejection are overcome by affection and forgiveness. Jesus' willingness to forgive (even to forgive Peter) meant that nothing was able to separate him from those whom God had given him as friends. One more difference: Jesus dies and even the clothes on his back are taken by someone else. He has nothing. And yet, who has ever had more? Jesus' death makes it crystal clear that it is not the things we own but the people we love who determine the worth of our lives.

Someday, the promise of eternal life will be higher on our lists of the difference Jesus' death makes. Today, on my list, I find the significance that death makes in all my relationships, with the way I look at the world, and the confidence with which I move through my day.

What difference does it make? It makes all the difference in the world. And as one who has been allowed to see and perceive this difference, I seek to make known these differences in everything I do and in everything I say.