As I am getting ready to celebrate Easter this year, something that comes back to me time and again is how much Jesus loves us. Shortly after I had invited Jesus into my life, my wife gave me a plaque that read, “I asked Jesus how much He loved me, and He stretched out His arms and died for me.” This plaque used to hang on my calendar at the locker plant I managed. It was in the ideal place because I had to look at the calendar several times a day. It was a constant reminder of just how much God loves me. I needed to see that several times every day.

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Burke, SD, will gather at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, April 7, 2023, to concentrate on Jesus’ final steps that led to the cross during a Good Friday Service. On the third day after this, April 9 at 10:00 a.m., we will gather to rejoice on Easter morning, to hear God’s Easter declaration of victory as Jesus’ first steps led outside his empty tomb. Come and share with us the Joy of Easter!

This week our world continues its frenzied pace of change, but not us… This week we slow down and follow our Lord from the institution of His Most Holy Presence in the Eucharist on Thursday, to His victory over sin and death on Friday through the cross, to His triumphal restoration of life through His resurrection on Saturday night and Sunday morning. We do as we have always done since the apostolic age and will do until the end of time: we stand with heads erect to proclaim that Christ has died for us, that He has been raised for us, and that He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

For us, logically, what is dead will always, remain dead at least to our understanding. As we read in the Bible, Jesus Christ did not remain dead. In John 24:6 the angels tell Mary and Mary Magdalene, “He is not here, but has risen.”

To die on a cross in just six hours was unusual. Sometimes criminals stayed alive for days. That is why the Roman soldiers came to break the leg bones of the criminals on either side so they would die before the Passover Sabbath began. Yet Jesus had already died. None of his bones were broken, fulfilling prophecy. Everything was planned out by the Father. Nothing was left to chance. Jesus died completing everything he came to do. He died well.

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