It is Easter weekend and my home is alive with excitement as we celebrate the resurrection that makes Christianity unique and beautiful.  The eggs are boiled, the dyes ready, the candy hid.  I am ready.  But as I sit here this morning, my heart is strangely irritated with something that has been eating at me.  As I think about the cross and resurrection, it won’t go away.  My way of processing these irritants is to write…and so, I will write.

The Christian church in America seems to have a love affair with the stage.  We can’t seem to help it.  In a world where fame is viewed as the ultimate success, is this any surprise? All around us is a culture that lauds that ONE moment of popularity.

Success seems to no longer be defined by a job, house, or money, but how many likes, shares, or friends you have following you.  You might be dysfunctional shmuck who can’t hold down a job, but that doesn’t seem to matter.  It’s so easy to catch the fever and jump into the river with everyone else.  But were we, as followers of Christ, meant to seek after a stage?

Now I  understand and agree that we must take those opportunities that we have to influence, teach, and share the gospel.  But that is not what I’m irritated about today.

It feels sometimes like ministry, too, has become a stage in place of an altar-where ministers see themselves as celebrities rather than servants. When we see ourselves as celebrities, we buy into the lie of special privileges and special rights until we are deluded into believing that we cannot (or worse, should not) be held accountable.   It is then that the enemy plays his winning card and all that was built on that lie, like the sand, comes crashing down.

This week, I had the unfortunate opportunity to read the disturbing news of a few influential Christian leaders who are real-life examples of this and had succumbed to immorality or corruption…again.  As someone who works hard in ministry to serve others, this irritates me.  Another smear to the character of the Bride of Christ.   They cared more about what they had the “right” to do than about living a life that lined up with the morality they had preached and marketed to the rest of us.

Have we forgotten the gospel is about a cross?

We are in cultural battle of righteous proportion but I hear  grumbling because Christianity is no longer popular or acceptable to the culture.  When did we ever presume that our acceptance in this culture would last forever?   Are we mourning the loss of our morality, or the loss of our “rights” as most devastating?  Are we more upset about lost people, or lost impressions that the outside world has of us?   Our need to be affirmed and accepted has caused many to compromise the truth of the gospel.

Jesus pronounced a BLESSING on those who were ill-treated and insulted for the gospel.  Are we willing to be those people?  He then pronounced a curse on those who were well-spoken of and likened them to false prophets.  Somewhere they had compromised truth.  Are we willing to stand for what is right in the face of persecution?  To stand on the side of truth, even if it is unpopular?  While we should mourn the loss of our influence in this country and those rights we have long enjoyed, we must not allow the enemy to side-track us from the real issue.  People need to hear the good news of what we celebrate this Easter.

Paul said, “Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised.  The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.” Gal. 6:12  They wanted to blend in to the world around them to avoid being despised.

Don’t compromise truth to avoid persecution.  If we build our lives and churches on popularity, there will come a day when it will all come crashing down.  Whether you are well-liked or not, stand for what is right.   If you are insulted for the cause of Christ, rejoice that you have been counted worthy to suffer for Him.

And Good Friday is our reminder of how much He suffered for US.

Never forget that cross.  Never forget His agony in that garden in Gethsemane, as the Son of Man was asked to drink that cup on our behalf so that we could be redeemed from the emptiness of this sin-filled and broken world.  Never forget that we serve a God who gave up all His “rights” so that we could be reconciled to Him.  They tried to give Him a stage AND a throne, but He wouldn’t have it.  He knew the throne would come later.  And never forget to keep OUR eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider Him as we celebrate this weekend and as His servants, may we always remember, before He sat down on the throne…He took up a cross.