OPINION:
Sunday, the celebration of Easter went a lot smoother than what many feared would happen.
As the COVID-19 pandemic exploded in the 40 days of Lent leading up to Easter, I was inundated with texts and emails from pastors around the world asking, “Will Easter be canceled this year?” Many didn’t know what to do. These were uncharted waters.
So, to encourage anxious clergy, last Monday I hosted a Global Easter Prayer Gathering for Pastors online. It hit a nerve, as nearly 1.2 million clergy from around the world logged in to participate.
I told them that as shepherds we’re called to protect God’s flock, not just feed and lead it, and if they truly loved their congregations, they should tell them to stay home on Easter. “Don’t worry, the quarantine will curtail Easter, but won’t cancel it,” I assured them. “The celebration will be simplified, but not stopped.”
Jesus’ resurrection was not canceled because it already happened 2,000 years ago, splitting the calendar into B.C. and A.D. Every other event in history, including our birthdays, is dated in relationship to Easter. Why? It proved Jesus wasn’t a liar. Many have claimed to be God but only Jesus offered proof. That’s why 2.4 billion believers celebrated Sunday. Easter gives us the reason for hope, which we certainly need these days. So, what are the lessons we can learn from yesterday’s unusual Easter?
First, we were not the first Christians to stay at home in fear on Resurrection Day. Jesus’ disciples Peter, John and other early followers did the same on the first Easter. John 20:19 reports “That (Easter) evening, the disciples were huddled together in a home, with the doors locked for fear …” Sound familiar? While the Apostles weren’t afraid of a deadly virus, they were afraid of being put to death by the same Roman authorities who had just crucified Jesus.
There was no giant megachurch celebration to welcome the resurrected Christ. To everyone’s surprise, Jesus just showed up in their homes! I have no doubt that Sunday Jesus did that again in tens of millions of homes because of his most famous promises in Matthew 18:20, ”Wherever two or three come together in my name, I will be there with them.”
A second lesson to remember is that “church” is not an event to go to; it is a spiritual family to belong to. Technically, we don’t go to “church.” We go to a worship service. The church is God’s family, composed of those who’ve chosen to love and obey Christ, and God says it’s the only thing on earth that will last for eternity.
A third lesson is that while worship is the first purpose of the church, Jesus outlined four additional purposes for his family in the world: fellowship (creating authentic community), discipleship (helping people grow to spiritual maturity), mission (reconciling disconnected people to God) and ministry (serving the needs and hurts of everyone). Right now these other functions are desperately needed, and they require no assembly.
I’ve used a C.H.U.R.C.H. acrostic while training pastors to help them remember six things any church can do in a crisis. Each is based on a command of Christ: Calm the anxious. Help the hurting. Uplift the discouraged. Recover the lost. Comfort the grieving. Heal the sick. None of these require assembling together and none are political.
A fourth lesson is that this crisis is an opportunity for churches to reset their focus on God’s agenda for his church. Jesus was essentially silent about political involvement. Besides paying taxes, the only thing Jesus mentioned was, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my followers would fight for it.” The Bible supports the tasks of good government, but the church has the greater task of transforming hearts. Laws are necessary to prevent injustice, but laws cannot change a racist or bigot into a lover of everyone. That requires a change of heart.
A final lesson is to remember that the church grew exponentially and became the Roman Empire’s official faith because the Christians courageously and compassionately cared for the sick during the plagues of the second and third centuries. It was the Christian church, not government nor business, that moved into the urban areas and created the first real hospitals during those plagues. The church has been doing health care for 2,000 years. It’s why so many hospitals are named after Christian saints.
Today, the Christian church is the largest organization on Earth. Nothing else comes close. With 2.4 billion followers of Jesus – 1 out of every 3 people – the church is bigger than China, Europe and the U.S. combined. It has the largest army of volunteers. It was global 200 years before anyone else thought of globalization and it speaks thousands more languages than does the United Nations. At the Davos World Economic Forum several years ago I said, “Your nation may not see this, but the world is becoming more religious, not less. That’s the reality.”
The church has outlasted every dictator, critic, philosophy, political movement, war and disaster. It will survive an Easter without services. Nothing manmade lasts forever, but a thousand years from today, God’s family will still exist — either here on Earth or in heaven. And Easter will still be celebrated.
• Rick Warren is the author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” which has sold more than 50,000,000 copies in 135 languages. TIME magazine, USA Today and CNN have named him “America’s Pastor.”
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