Celebrating God’s gift

Easter Special
celebrating God’s gift

Story 1

It is hard for us to fathom what the depth of God’s love is like, but let me tell you a story about human love that just might get to it. A woman came to see a world-famous plastic surgeon named Dr. Maxwell Maltz. She came to see him about her husband. She told the doctor that her husband had been injured in a fire attempting to save his parents from a burning house. He could not get to them, and they were both killed. And his face was permanently burned and disfigured. He had given up on living and had gone into hiding. He would not let anybody see him—not even his wife.
Dr. Maltz told the wife not to worry. He said, “With the great advances in modern medicine, I am confident that I can restore his face.” She explained to the doctor that her husband would not let anyone help him because he believed that god had disfigured his face to punish him for not rescuing his parents. She then made a shocking request: she said, “Doctor, I want you to disfigure my face…so I can be like him. If I can share in his pain, then maybe—just maybe—he will let me back into his life. I love him so much, and I want to be with him; and if that’s what it takes, then that’s what I am willing to do.”

Now Dr. Maltz could not agree to do this, but he was moved so deeply by her determination and her love for her husband that he got her permission to talk to her husband one last time. He went to the man’s room and he knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He knew the man was inside, so he called loudly from the door, “I know you’re in there. I know you can hear me, so I have come to tell you that my name is Dr. Maxwell Maltz, and I am a plastic surgeon. And I want you to know that I can restore your face.” There was still no response. So he knocked again and cried even louder, “Please come out and let me restore your face.” But again there was no answer. Still speaking through the door, Dr. Maltz told the man what his wife was asking him to do, “She wants me to disfigure her face…to make her face like yours in hope that you will let her back into your life—that’s how much she loves you. That’s what she wants for you. Will you let me help you?”

There was a brief moment of silence; and then, ever so slowly, the doorknob began to turn. And the door was cracked open, and out of the darkness of the room, a disfigured man came out into the light for a new beginning and a new life. He was literally set free and brought out of his hiding and given a new start because of the depth of love of his wife. That is a dramatic expression of human love in a small way that describes God’s great love for us. We human beings have had the potential of our lives scarred and disfigured by our sin. Our relationship with God is broken and, no matter how hard we try, we cannot fix this on our own. We cannot forgive our own sin. We cannot heal the disfigurement of our soul and lives. We cannot mend the broken relationship we have with God and with others; but God has done this for us. He loves us so much that He was willing to become like us and suffer for us at the Cross.

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Story 2

During the Vietnam War, a young graduate of the West Point Academy was sent to Vietnam to lead a group of new recruits into battle. He had done his job well. He had tried to protect his men from ambush and death; however, one night, he and his men were overrun by a battalion of the Viet Cong. He was able to get all but one of his men to safety. The one soldier that had been left behind was severely wounded, and from their trenches the young lieutenant and his men could hear his cries for help in the middle of the night. They all knew that venturing out to go get him in the middle of that no-man’s land would mean a vicious cross-fire from the enemy and almost certain death; but the groaning and cries of the wounded soldier continued through the night.

Eventually, the endurance of the young lieutenant wavered; and he crawled out of the safe place and began to make his way out to the dying man. He got to him safely and miraculously was able to bring him back. Just as he was pushing the wounded man down into the safety of the trench, a shot rang out, hit the lieutenant in the back, and he died. Greater love has no human being than this—that he would lay down his life for his friends.

Several months later, the rescued man returned to the United States; and when the parents of the dead hero heard that he was in their area, they planned to have him come to dinner. They wanted to know the young man whose life was spared at such a great personal expense to them. On the night of the dinner party, their guest arrived drunk—he was loud and boisterous and obscene. He told off-color jokes and showed no concern for his suffering hosts. The parents of the dead hero did the best that they could to make it worthwhile, but their efforts went unrewarded. And at the end of that awful visit, the obscene guest left; and as her husband closed the door, the mother of the hero collapsed in tears. She said, “And to think our precious son died for somebody like that!”

I want you to know how great God’s love is for you and me. Jesus died for a world full of “somebodies” like that—we dare not waste it. The life of Jesus was very precious, and He gave it for you and for me. Jesus was not crucified between two candlesticks on an altar in a worship center; no, the Cross was in the middle of the messiness of life. Jesus was crucified between two thieves in a garbage heap in the middle of hate and grief, disgust and failure, blood and discouragement. The Cross of Jesus still finds its greatest power when we bring it into the broken places in our lives. The Cross of Jesus still has its greatest effect when we allow it to come into the messiest place that we have and allow ourselves to experience the grace of God.

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Where will you see Jesus this week? With you meet him in the hurts and frustrations of your friends? Will you meet him while forgiving a classmate or an enemy or somebody who has done you wrong? Will you meet him while looking into the eyes of a child who wants nothing more out of you than love and acceptance? Because God is with us and for us in Jesus, how can you be with and for other people where you live and study and play this week? I will tell you how…you can do it by coming to the Cross.