The lyrics of a song, usually sung at Christmas, have been running through my head over the past several days:  “Isn’t this a strange way to save the world?”

The question applies as much, or more so to Easter.  It was one thing for God to become man and live amongst us.  It was an even greater shock that He would submit to unspeakable injustice, pain and humility and then die–AND THEN RISE AGAIN!

The strong inner drive in man to pursue violence and the aquistion of power through violence is the most dangerous force on the face of the earth.  It has killed hundreds of millions of people in the past century alone.  Yet we still think it is an force that can be tamed.  We somehow think that if “good men” exercise that power it can be harnessed to do good.

God doesn’t think so.  If he had, Jesus would have become a ruler–probably the Emperor of the Romans.  But imagine the consequences.  If he had used coercive force to achieve “good”, he would have added to the woes of the world. 

Virtually every ruler who comes to power does so under the cloak of the “good of the people”, and yet most of them perpetuate some sort of tyranny.  If Jesus had come as a ruler, the powers that energise tyranny would have been promoted to even greater cruelty. 

There was and is no way to strike at this most potent evil short of the sacrifice of a perfect life and then–the victorious power of resurrection. 

Those of us who claim to follow this savior must regularly remind ourselves that he blazed only one trail.  It did not lead to a righteous exercise of power, it led and still leads to the sacrifice of self and therein lies the power of resurrection life. 

So at Easter, remember that recurring theme of scripture,  “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will raise you up!”