It’s only natural to think of Easter and the Resurrection as a miracle; after all Christ’s rising from the dead is extraordinary and solely in God’s realm. Yet, calling Easter a miracle makes the event exclusively God’s and removes us from having anything to do with it. I don’t believe that this is God’s intent since God’s incarnation in Jesus and Jesus’ death and resurrection were for our salvation and did not benefit God. God did not need Jesus' death or resurrection. God performs miracles but man celebrate sacraments. While God works a miracles inderpendent from man, man is essential to the presence of a sacrament. A sacrament requires our participation for its very existence.
Easter is never more "sacramental" than when
one man gives his life for another. Christians seek to make Easter
sacramental in their lives by their memory of Jesus through their words and
deeds.
John Calvin wrote that becoming Son of man with us, he made us sons of God with
him; that by his descent to earth, he has prepared an ascent to heaven for us;
that by taking on out mortality, he has conferred his immortality upon us; that
accepting our weakness, he has strengthened us by his power; that receiving our
poverty unto himself, he has transferred our wealth to us; that taking the
weight of our iniquity upon himself (which oppressed us), he has clothed us
with his righteousness. (Kruger, The Shack Revisited, p. 197)
Jesus became incarnate to teach us how to live our lives and to reside
in Him through Jesus. Each time we celebrate the Eucharist and say “in him through him and with him,” we are reminded of our participation in his
birth, death and resurrection. (John 20:1-9) (Adapted from Dawn without Darkness, Anthony Padovano, p78)
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