Judging by the evidence around us, Easter is all about bunnies and chicks and plastic eggs and candies.
Logic would have us asking, "What lasting value do these fun traditions have?"
Christians would answer, "None."
None of this fluff has anything to do with how Easter came to be.
None of it has meaning for longer than for a few hours or days.
Those of us who are Christians hang onto what happened that first Easter with fierce joy, as if we were drowning and someone just threw us a life preserver.
Someone did.
Easter shines hope into our dark world
It began on a Friday.
A crowd gathered at a hill outside Jerusalem, unable to look away from the horror unfolding before them. Three rough wooden crosses had been pounded into the rocky ground and three men nailed to them.
Jesus, who days before had attracted cheering crowds, hung there on the center cross, his life ebbing away as they watched.
- Jesus, who turned ordinary water into fine wine.
- Jesus, who stilled the storm and fed enormous crowds with a few fish and a couple small loaves of bread.
- Jesus, who healed the blind and the lame, even raised the dead back to life.
Now the One whom wind and water obeyed appeared powerless.
How could this be?
After six hours Jesus drew his final breath of air and died
Because the Sabbath would begin at dusk his followers implored the Roman guards to take down his body from the cross at once. Then they hastily laid him in a new tomb cut into the side of a hill.
The religious authorities, who for months felt threatened by Jesus, breathed a sigh of relief. He was out of their way. Dead is dead.
Except . . . What if someone stole his corpse and pronounced it yet another miracle?
The risk might be small, but they insisted Roman authorities roll a boulder across the tomb's opening and seal the edges with melted wax. Armed guards stood watch around the clock.
Only then did the religious leaders relax, prepared to resume their life of power and position as before.
Then came Sunday, the third day . . .
Just after dawn followers of Jesus went to his grave. They found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty.
All that remained were the strips of linen and the spices they had wrapped around Jesus' corpse.
That, plus the burial cloth that had been around His head, neatly folded up by itself (John 20:5-8.)
What could it mean?
An angel told them, "He is not here. He is risen!" (Mark 16 and Luke 24)
Then they recalled how mystified they were when Jesus told them that He would rise. Could this be what He meant?
They soon found out. Over the next weeks Jesus, very much alive, appeared to his followers and friends many times.
- He spoke with them and touched them--and they touched him.
- He ate with them.
- He told them how much he loved them.
- He promised they would receive power to carry on his ministry when they received the Holy Spirit, which Jesus promised to send them.
They had watched him die. They carried his body to the tomb. Yet now he was alive again.
That's the Good News
One scholar summed up the Easter Gospel this way:
Jesus had to be true man, because God cannot die for the sins of the world. God cannot die for any reason. He is eternal, without beginning and without end.
Jesus had to be true God because man cannot forgive sins or pay the price of sin for the world. Only God.
Jesus was there when God created the world and everything in it. Later He put on human skin and came to earth, the Babe born in Bethlehem. Thirty-three years later he willingly gave up his human life on the cross to redeem us--buy us back--from the power of sin and set us right with God the Father.
Because Jesus laughed at death we can live without fear.
All this is beyond our human understanding
And that's as it should be. Who of us would worship a being just like ourselves?
These verses capsulize the "why" of Easter:
(Jesus said) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that everyone who believes in him shall have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." --John 3:16 NIV
All it costs us is taking Jesus at his word:
"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." --John 10:10 NIV
Jesus brings us hope, no matter what. Comfort in the midst of pain and loss. Love when we feel loveless and alone. Life that endures beyond death. He is with us, every moment of every day.
Now that's reason to celebrate all year long!
Easter blessings to you and yours,
Lenore
