It is such a joy to celebrate Resurrection Sunday worshipping alongside fellow believers.  It is also a joy to know that there are believers around the area and around the world celebrating the same!  I expect that many of us stood with tears in our eyes as the Halleluiah Chorus filled the sanctuary!  What a glorious day in remembrance of a glorious day!

I was particularly challenged by our pastor yesterday as he shared the resurrection story from John’s gospel (chapter 20).   A focal point of the passage and a focal point of the message came from verse 15 when Jesus asked Mary, “WHOM ARE YOU SEEKING?”  We all know the story.  Mary was the first to the tomb and found it empty and began to cry.  Jesus appeared to her and she mistakenly thought she was speaking to the gardener.  Then, her eyes were opened to see Jesus and she ran back to the disciples claiming, “I have seen the Lord!”  Allow me to paraphrase my pastor, hoping to do his words justice:  “This passage reminds us that Christianity is the pursuit of a WHOM and not a WHAT!  Our society says that we should seek the things of this world for satisfaction.  But, no THING in this world will satisfy.  Every THING falls short of the ONE WHOM we are to seek!’

As I often do, my mind quickly went to my world of Christian education.  It struck me – harder than I expected – that this is why Christian education is so very important.  We have the privilege and the responsibility of teaching and training the next generation of children to seek HIM and enjoy complete satisfaction when we can claim, “I have seen the Lord!”  This is more than praying before class.  It is more than having a weekly chapel or even having a Bible class.  It is to teach our students to seek the WHOM when the world says that a WHAT will suffice.

I hope that you will see that the Jesus (Whom!) we celebrated yesterday can be the focal point of every lesson and every conversation and every relationship all day long in our Christian schools.  Actually, it is more than “can be” – Jesus “must be” the focal point – as the message of the world needs constant correction.  The last verse of John 20 encapsulates my hope and prayer for this next generation:  “…that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”  The WHY of Christian education is believing in the WHOM of Jesus Christ SO THAT they would have life!