Gracias has become one of the most essential terms in the Spanish language. After words like “papá” (dad) and “mama” (mom), “gracias” (thank you) is part of the everyday vocabulary of all Spanish speakers. In all cultures, expressing gratitude to others represents good manners and civil interaction. For this reason, parents teach their children to say thank you as part of their early education. In Spanish, gracias preserves the etymological root of the word “grace” that we miss in English. Sadly, even Spanish speakers tend to be reminded about grace’s importance without reflecting on its meaning in their lives.
Grace is the foundational term for Christianity because it describes its unique distinctiveness. We are sinners separated from a holy God. There is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor or to erase our sin and its consequences from our lives. In our desperation, we discover an exceptional passage in the Scriptures that turns our world and our dire situation upside down:
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Or is it by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Eph. 2: 4-8), emphasis added).
Nobody deserves God’s favor, yet we receive it in Christ through His grace. Easter reminds us that we are all sinners in desperate need of God’s grace. Followers of Christ believe that salvation is a work of grace. However, many of us forget that the Christian life is also a result of God’s grace and act as if keeping God’s favor depends on our works. For this reason, we can tend to resemble the religious leaders who opposed Jesus. They thought their religious practices pleased God and merited His recognition for their piety. Consequently, they looked down on the sinners who didn’t live and behave like them.
If we are honest, many of us share a lot in common with the religious leaders who opposed Jesus and the vineyard workers who complained about the owner’s gracious behavior. Over time, we forget our sinfulness and start to believe that we deserve God’s grace. When this happens, we struggle to appreciate God’s grace for others and fail to extend it to them. For this reason, we need Easter to remind us that we are sinners in constant need of divine redemption, the last ones who always rely on divine grace, and the sick who require divine healing.
In God’s economy, the last shall be first. We are all the last who, by grace, can become the first. God’s grace makes all the difference in the world.
Prayer:
Father, we stop our daily activities and sing to you from our hearts:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I’m found
Was blind, but now I see.
Thank you!
Dr. Octavio Javier Esqueda
Professor of Christian Higher Education
Director, Ph.D. and Ed.D. Programs in Educational Studies
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University
Scripture #1: Matthew 20:8–16 (NKJV)
“So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”
Scripture #2: Mark 2:15–17 (NKJV)
Tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Note: You can find the original post here.
