“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” — 1 Peter 1:3

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The Masters wouldn’t be the same if it happened in the dead of winter. If they scheduled it in January, trees would look dreary with no greenery or flowers, and the grass would be brown and dormant. During winter, the nights are long and the days are short, but spring’s longer days and warmer weather means beautifully manicured green fairways for the golf course in Augusta, Georgia.

The landscaping of Augusta National Golf Course is breathtaking in spring, especially in April. Vibrant purple and pink azalea bushes dazzle in the sunlight. The 13th hole boasts some 1,600 azaleas for millions of people to see. Each year, new professionals play the course for the first time and dream about putting on the coveted green jacket as the winner of the Masters on Sunday, but only one golfer gets that privilege each year.

As we come out of winter into spring and enjoy warmer days, birds singing in the morning, and longer evenings, it seems like we moved from death to life. This is a theme we see in the New Testament of the Bible, when Jesus started predicting His death, burial and resurrection, and he used an example from nature to speak about coming back to life. “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24). At this point, Jesus had already raised Lazarus from the dead, so perhaps the resurrection of Christ shouldn’t have been a totally foreign idea.

The resurrection of Lazarus caused a big reaction amongst the people, and even provoked religious leaders to ramp up their desire to persecute the Man who performed the miracle. Bu the death and resurrection of Christ is different than the miracle He performed on Lazarus, as Christ alone is perfect and He’s the only One worthy to die for our sins and rise to give us eternal life. Most of us aren’t really willing to die for others, but Jesus loves us so much that He died on our behalf to provide salvation. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).

Death is a powerful force, but Jesus conquered death when He rose from the tomb and walked out alive. When Mary Magdalene and the disciples saw Jesus alive again, they saw a victorious Christ who had something much better than a green Masters jacket for every believer. Peter encouraged us to rejoice with him in Jesus’s triumph over the grave that opens new beginnings for us every day. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

— Bill Kent, Pastor of Memorial Baptist Church, Sylvania, Georgia

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