Easter Produces Life-Changing Results

While the 2024 Super Bowl is old news, I can’t help contrasting the pizzaz and excitement focused on Las Vegas last month compared to this coming weekend’s  celebration of Easter.

Let’s start with the hype driven by Travis Kelce’s courtship of megawatt singer Taylor Swift, which led to record viewership of the game. The 123.4 million views across TV and streaming platforms topped last year’s mark by more than eight million.

I saw a report that week of the average ticket price nearing $10,000 before settling back to just $7,700. Las Vegas saw 330,000 visitors that week, or about five times the capacity of Allegiant Stadium.

Can you say “hoopla”?

Measuring Headlines

Illustrative purposes only. Not the actual photo.

Sunday will attract the obligatory news coverage of Pope Francis’s address in the Vatican and various church services. After the tragic shooting at Lakewood Church in Houston on Super Bowl Sunday, I can imagine a flock of stories about new security measures enacted at churches nationwide.

But few headlines will chronicle the lives that will be changed because of people who make a decision to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior, all because of a sermon reviewing His awesome sacrifice.

No crowds will flock to watch the baptisms that take place as a result of Easter. Outside of the local church where it happens, not many will be aware of lives that are salvaged from the trainwrecks of drug addiction or alcoholism because Jesus changed a battered life.

Nor will trumpets sound to signal that another marriage has been saved from the sting of adultery, or a life of aimlessness converted to one of purpose and peace, or a once-divided family reunited in joy.

Citizens of Heaven

I thought about this recently as my wife and I were discussing a devotional that included a reading from Philippians 3.

Paul addresses many things in that chapter, but I especially like what he has to say in verses 20-21: “Our citizenship is in heaven, from where also we await for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our body of humiliation, so that it may be conformed to His glorious body” (MEV, emphasis added).

That is worth shouting from the rooftops. More than 2,000 years ago the Son of God came to earth, lived among us, and died on a cross. The only perfect Man was crucified—for doing nothing wrong!

As Paul wrote elsewhere: “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him … God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their sins against them, and has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:21 and 19).

There is no better message than that proclaimed on Easter. This day will attract millions to special masses, sunrise services, and church observances across the world. Lives will be changed and set free, as countless numbers accept the free gift offered by God.

That may not create the kind of crowds and excitement that overwhelmed Las Vegas in February. But the changes will go much further and last much longer. For eternity even. Happy Easter.