I know Easter happened last week, but God’s recently shown me an important lesson from the Easter story that I think we should all learn. As beautiful as Easter is, we are still facing this pandemic. As we look around, we realize life on this planet is brutal. We lose friends just as quickly as we make them, dreams die, people hurt us, nature destroys us, and the ever-present threat of death haunts our future. What a terrible life. How could someone even say God exists? After all, if he does exist then why does God let bad things happen?
I’m sure many of you are asking yourselves this question, especially in light of this pandemic. Well, I think there’s no better holiday than Easter to engage with this difficult topic.
The Tragedy of Easter
We might think of Easter as a happy holiday, and well we should, but Easter wouldn’t be happy if it wasn’t preceded by tragedy. If Jesus never died, we’d have no resurrection. If Jesus didn’t face public scorn and ridicule, we’d never be saved from our sins. And how could we see such a beautiful transformation in Peter unless he first fell low enough to completely disown his best friend.
After Peter is accused again of being one of Jesus’ disciples, he invokes a curse upon himself and swears that he never knew Jesus (Mark 14:71). The gospel of Luke records that, “Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord (Jesus) turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered. . . . He (Peter) went out and wept bitterly,” (Luke 22:60b-62).
Jesus is betrayed by his followers, he’s mocked by those he’s trying to save, and then God incarnate dies. However, just a few days later we see the impossible take place. Jesus conquers death. He rallies back together those who abandoned him to death. Then Jesus pays the price of our sin so that everyone, even those who despised him, could be forgiven. What an amazing victory. But, this joyful victory couldn’t happen without tragedy.
Our Trials Will Bring Joy
If you are like me, lots of bad things have happened in your life. I can’t count the number of times I’ve wondered “why does God let bad things happen?” But there’s a reason. My high school and college years were rough. My family life was really hard. I felt alone, like I didn’t have a home, and that there would be no end. Fortunately there was an end. But it’s from this hard season that I learned some critical skills that still prove useful today. I drew closer to God in that season than any other time in my life. Now I can come alongside those who are going through similar circumstances and bring joy to their lives.
This pandemic is hard. It’s difficult to see how anything good can come out of it. However, people are starting to realize that they were relying on idols like money, safety, or the government for their sense of security. Now we see just how little control we have over all of that. We are seeing tons of people turn back to God and many more trusting in Jesus for the first time.
This is Not Our Home
I don’t know what sort of hardship you are facing, and I by no means want to down play it. At the core of every difficulty is the simple understanding that all is not right. Something is wrong. We are designed to live in a perfect world for eternity with our loving Creator. So, any bad thing that might happen here in this life is just another reminder for us that this is not our home. God uses our hardships to remind us that we need him, and that we should live this life preparing for and investing in eternity.
Instead of letting this pandemic and other hardships get us down, let’s use it as a reminder that this world will only fail us. This world was never meant to satisfy us. God is our only satisfaction. We need to turn to Jesus in our brokenness and ask him to forgive us from our sins. If we believe that only he can do it because he is the only perfect person who could die in our place and rise again to defeat the power of our sins, then we can be freed from this broken life. We can be promised eternity with God where we will be in perfection.
Bad Things Highlight God’s Character
The majority of bad things happen because of other people. In fact, if people didn’t sin in the first place, there wouldn’t be any evil in our world. This virus would’ve never existed if it weren’t for us following our own pride and rebelling from God’s good plan. We are the problem. Though God wished we would’ve never messed up in the first place, he can still use our sad situation to bring about good.
Now, even though we’ve horribly screwed everything up, God is still good and present. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” Romans 5:8. The worse we make our world and the worse us humans are, the more God’s love is displayed.
Why Does God let Bad Things Happen?
As nice as it might sound for God to step in and completely destroy everything evil and bad in our world, this causes a big problem. If God destroyed all evil, he’d have to destroy us too. So, what should he do, let evil continue on or destroy us? One day God will destroy every evil thing, including people, but he’s delaying his just punishment for our sake. Before he destroys everything, he wants to first help us escape this destruction by directing us to what Jesus did on the cross. Only through Jesus can we be saved from God’s just destruction of evil.
Doesn’t this make sense?
Until that day, God must continue to let bad things happen. But one day, God will tolerate evil no more. Please don’t delay in turning to God. You never know when it will be too late.
Let’s Live for Eternity
May this beautiful Easter holiday be a reminder that God desires good and will one day eradicate evil, pain, and fear so we no longer have to worry about scary things like COVID-19. So, let’s use this season show others that this world won’t satisfy us and that we need God. After all, why spend so much time and money buying and doing things solely to scrape joy out of this life, when something else–like this virus–can sweep in and destroy it all. Instead, let’s set the worries of this life behind and live for eternity.
Let’s spend this life drawing closer to God, building up treasures in heaven. Most importantly, let’s spend this life bringing others into eternity with us. Let’s live wilder!
If you liked this post, consider checking out my other Easter post: Was Spring Engineered for the Resurrection?
If you still are having a hard time trusting God and his ways, check out my post 5 Reasons Why You Can Trust God
