Introduction: The Madina Thief
Kwasi A thief had been stealing from the market women in Madina every day. The security had been lying in wait to catch this thief who had troubled the people for so long. On one fateful day, his luck ran out. All the people in the market started chasing him. They chased him out through Ogbojo, Aviation through to Adenta. Out of pity a man stopped him and enquired why he was running so fast.
Kwasi recounted his story to him, surprisingly the man asked him to go inside his house and take a rest. In another surprise move, he took Kwasi’s shirt, wore it and went out to meet the accusers of Kwasi the thief. He began to plead for the thief, but in a twist of fate, they mistook him to be the thief and issued instant justice to him. He was killed there and then. Finally, the anger of the whole market was pacified, this thief who had troubled them had been killed. As far as they knew Kwasi the thief was dead and gone.
Out of remorse, Kwasi goes to the Police Station to report himself that he is the thief who has been troubling the whole town. The police checked their records and asked him to go away, since as far as they were concerned, Kwasi the thief was dead. Kwasi now had to live his new life knowing that he was living his new life as a dead man; yet living. He did not own his life, he knew that someone had indeed exchanged places with him.
Questions to Consider
· Are there any similarities between this story and our Easter story?
· As a witness, how would you feel if you hear that Kwasi has returned to his former life?
Conclusion
· The reason for Easter is to simply celebrate Jesus Christ; who paid the death penalty for a crime he never committed (Romans 5:6-8)
· His substitutionary death means that we do not have to die for our sins as the Law instructs (Romans 6:23)
· His victory over death and resurrection has given us power over SIN, we are no more slaves to SIN (Romans 6:14)
· Our life is now the new life of Christ, our old life has been killed (Galatians 2:20)
· As far as this world is concerned, we are dead. We need to stop living as if our lives are still connected to our former nature in this world