It seems I am content with and even seek, to live avoiding extremes. We use phrases like: “too much of a good thing” and “don’t overdo it.” We tend to seek balance and middle ground. We try to avoid both suffering and rose-colored-glasses. But the Bible’s Easter tells a different story. It tells of God’s suffering and joy. It describes the old Olympic theme: the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” Olympic competition (actually nearly everything in life) does involve both victory and defeat. But to think of the defeat and victory of Easter as anything but extreme beyond measure is to misunderstand and misrepresent what truly happened. To misunderstand Easter is to miss the truly Extreme LIFE Jesus said He came to give us. Many people have and do suffer serious defeats of great anguish both physically and mentally. We can wince and even weep as we contemplate the physical abuse Jesus suffered as He endured the hours of His crucifixion. It truly was extreme. But to recall that “He (God) came to His own and His own rejected Him” reveals His suffering as “extreme.” That God planned it, allowed it, reveals the “Extreme” love story that Easter tells. Of course Easter is not only about defeat, but also about victory. While those who crucified Jesus (actually all of us) imagined they were done with someone claiming to be The Sovereign KING of LIFE, little did they know that what appeared as an extreme defeat, was actually an extreme victory. What could possibly pay the death penalty of rejecting the God Who made us? Only One Person could pay such an extreme price. On Easter Friday Jesus paid it. How do we know Jesus’ agony was enough to be the extreme victory we need? In His dying breaths Jesus said: “It is finished.” It was not just relief that the agony was over, but the debt was paid, the enemy of LIFE was defeated. How do we know? While the heartbreaking agony of Jesus’ followers would last through Saturday, Easter was not finished until the extreme victorious joy of the Sunday morning news that “He is not here, He is risen.” It is appropriate to weep seriously contemplating the agony Jesus suffered because of the “great love with which He loved us.” But we ought to weep extremely recognizing that it is our own sin that prompted His agony. But that is only half of the extremity of Easter, for when we admit our sin and accept Jesus’ death in our place, His Resurrection to new LIFE becomes ours. This is a “joy inexpressible, and filled with glory” that Jesus’ LIFE should become ours. There is a song titled, “At the Cross” that includes the phrase: “two wonders I confess, my worth and my unworthiness.” In my extreme unworthiness, God considered me of such extreme worth that He paid the extreme price of His own death to give to me the extreme gift of His LIFE. “To all who receive Him, who believe in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God.” We have the Extreme privilege of LIVING daily with The God Who “for the joy set before Him endured the cross.” Our heart, mind, and LIFE should more often ponder the extremes of Death and LIFE the truths of Easter tell.