THE MESSAGE AND MISSION OF EASTER

Bishop Dr Gordon Wong of The Methodist Church in Singapore. He taught at Trinity Theological College for 17 years in subjects such as Old Testament, Hebrew and Homiletics (methodology of preaching and writing sermons), where he was the Bishop William F Oldham Professor of Old Testament.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

The transition from the end of Isaiah 10 to the start of Isaiah 11 mirrors the message and mission of Easter.

See, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low. He will cut down the forest thickets with an axe; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One. (Isaiah 10:33-34, NIV)

These last two verses of Isaiah 10 paint a picture of tall trees chopped to the ground: “lofty trees will be felled… tall ones will be brought low.”

God sometimes allows the trees of human kingdoms and human lives to be chopped down and humbled. And when we are chopped down and humbled, it often feels as if our life is over. Our leaves and branches have been cut off, and the very trunk of our life has been chopped down. Nothing is left except the small, bare stump of our life tree. Darkness and despair leave us depressed and seemingly dead.

But this depressing picture of fallen trees at the end of Isaiah 10 transitions surprisingly into the promise and hope of Isaiah 11:1

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. (ESV)

Here we have a promise of new leaves, a new shoot growing out of a tree stump. Not just a tree in winter that has lost all its leaves. We have a tree that has been chopped down completely – no branches, no tree trunk, only the stump or the roots of the tree are left. And yet, from this chopped down tree trunk springs the promise of new life.

It seems impossible, but this is the incredible proclamation of God in Isaiah 11. A wonderful new season of life out of a tree that has been reduced to a stump. This is also the message of Easter. The Jesus who died and was buried has conquered death and is alive once more! Out of darkness and death springs the promise of light and life!

This MESSAGE of Easter is also the mission entrusted to all who believe in the God of Easter. We live in a world where there is much darkness, despair and death. War, disease, famine, flood, greed, exploitation, discrimination… many agents of darkness come upon us.

The MISSION of Easter is to bring the message of Easter – not just in words, but with works of love and actions – to people and places that suffer at the hands of agents of darkness and death.

Let us encourage one another to heed the message and mission of Easter.