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Celebrating Easter |
It happens every year.
The churches are packed with strangers. All the women are dressed
up extra fancy in bright new suits. And after the service, the
kids are scrambling across grassy lawns, looking for something
hidden behind trees and shrubs, and just under the porches, along
the fence line, and at the edges of flowerbeds.
What's with all those rabbits, new dresses, and colored eggs?
Where did all these people come from that are packing the pews?
We often call it an Easter celebration. And as many Christians
join in the Easter egg hunts, Easter baskets, and fun with Easter
bunnies as anyone else. Christian women often dress up in bright
pastels, and may even include new hats. And there are huge dinners
and family gatherings, crowded church pews, special Easter
sermons, and so on.
But Christians are not really celebrating "Easter" when they
celebrate Easter. We're not celebrating the return of the sunshine
and longer days, the return of any pagan gods to life, or the
fertility of our new crops and livestock.
Don't get me wrong. Sunshine and longer days are wonderful things.
And so is a good yield of crops. While most of us welcome certain
aspects of fall and winter, few of us would wish to keep the long
nights and the cold weather all year long. No, spring and summer
are truly good and wonderful things.
But Christians do not celebrate or worship any aspect of nature.
We look beyond nature to the Creator, the true and living God who
set everything in motion and who keeps all things going by His own
eternal Word. And at this time of the year, we look back
especially and remember the terrible death and the awesome
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We celebrate His willing
sacrifice, His gift of life, and His power to give light to every
darkened human soul.
History shows us that pagans were celebrating the return of spring
long before Christians existed. And there was also a time when
both Christians and pagans were holding celebrations on about the
same days. And then, as more and more pagans became Christian, the
Christian celebrations overcame the pagan -- both in times and in
substance.
But of course, political rulers and church leaders always have to
get involved, to force things and to muddy up the waters. And
today we even have secular historians working hard to try and
reconstruct history in order to try, once again, to capture and
contain the Christian message and Gospel. (But they will never be
able to do so -- as John 1:5 [NRSV] declares: "The light shines in
the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.")
So what is it that Christians are celebrating this time of the
year? Why do we even bother to participate and/or argue about the
holiday?
A fact mentioned in passing above -- the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ -- is the cornerstone of not only the church itself,
but of all time and eternity, as well. Had Jesus not lived, died,
and risen again, there would be no light at all in this dark, dark
world.
Think about it.
The eternal Son of God, the very Word (logos) which was God, and
which was with God in the beginning (see John 1:1-5), became a
human being -- a flesh and blood man. That in itself was
extraordinary and totally impossible. How can the eternal God
become a human being? How can eternal and infinite Spirit become
flesh and blood -- finite and temporal and mortal?
The pagans could never do it. They had make-believe gods in their
sagas and tales that would pretend to be human sometimes. (But
even at their best those gods were nothing more than oversized
people in character and nature.) And any human appearances the
pagan gods made were strictly pretense, according to the tales
themselves.
But the true and living God who made and rules all things,
actually became flesh. And He lived among us for some thirty-odd
years. He was born as a human baby, grew up as a fairly ordinary
Jewish boy, and then lived out a short life as a human adult. When
He went to the cross, Jesus was a mortal being put to death for
crimes he never committed.
The whole concept is so hard to grasp, that secular philosophers
from about the beginning of the nineteenth century on tried to
convince everyone that eyewitnesses couldn't possibly have
recorded the story of Jesus. They told us that the Gospel accounts
were not written down until hundreds of years later -- centuries
(centuries!!) after the real Jesus of Nazareth had lived and died.
In their unbelieving minds, there needed to be enough time for the
old pagan stories and legends to have been slowly added (another
form of evolution?) to the Gospel message of Jesus' life, death,
and resurrection.
I think that this kind of thinking was based on observing
chimpanzees in the wild, or aboriginal tribes who had no written
languages or something. Okay, so I'm being a little sarcastic. But
you would think that even the worst skeptics in the world would
realize that the People of the Book (the Jews) are not going to
wait whole generations to begin writing about the most significant
thing to ever happen on planet earth.
Messiah had come! The Lamb of God had died! The Savior of the
world had risen from the dead! The Promised One was going to be
talked about, written about, sung about -- celebrated!
Fortunately, as time went on, older and older copies of New
Testament manuscripts were uncovered, some dating right into the
lifetime of the original disciples, the actual apostles of Jesus
Christ. According to a documentary on the Discovery Channel, some
scholars have even dated a portion of the Gospel of Matthew to
within a decade or so of the Lord Jesus Himself.
Important fact: God does impossible things.
The Bible is filled with accounts of impossible things being done
by God, either directly or through those men and women who
listened to Him and acted in simple faith. The supernatural birth,
life, and death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ is
impossible, yes. But it's true, nonetheless. With God, as the
Scripture says, all things are possible.
Eternal God dies for mortal, sinful human beings. Sinless, holy
God takes on sins of the whole world. Fallen, sinful, ruined human
beings are made sinless and holy by God's kindness and merciful
love. Mortal men and women and children of all ages receive
eternal life in God's household.
As one woman in Texas testified on television once, "I got down on
my knees, right there on the city sidewalk as a sinner, a whore,
an addict. I prayed to God. I got up as a forgiven saint, a lady,
a woman of God." Here in the real world, where we all grew up,
that stuff just doesn't happen. Crack addicts and whores don't get
clean, through and through, in a couple of minutes. But with God,
all things are possible. And I know of countless thugs,
prostitutes, pimps, addicts -- you name it -- that have been made
clean, made holy in God's eyes - by the sweet and amazing grace of
our God, through simple faith in Jesus Christ.
Because Jesus lived and died, all sins are carried away for
whoever believes in Him for eternal life. And because Jesus rose
up, walking right out of hell and the tomb, we can all trust God
for new life. That life does not begin when we die. That new life
begins right here and now, the very day and hour that we place our
faith in Jesus Christ.
Because Jesus lives, we also live.
And one day, at the appointed time, Jesus Christ will return to
this planet. He's not returning as a humble servant, like He was
before. He'll return with full power and glory as King of the
entire universe. And all who know Him will rejoice, and all who
have rejected Him will mourn.
That truth made reality by the Lord Jesus Christ is what
Christians celebrate at this time of the year.
In fact, we celebrate it every week, as we gather with other
believers. And whenever we break bread together in Christian
fellowship, we actively remember the death of the Lord Jesus, who
gave Himself for us. As we gather together on the first day of the
week, we're celebrating that morning, nearly two thousand years
ago, when Jesus Himself walked out of the tomb.
Now that's something to celebrate, isn't it? That's what
Christians are celebrating this time of the year.
The Easter Song
One of the great blessings of God in and through Jesus Christ is
the incredible music He's given to the church, and through the
church to the whole world. I'm thinking of Handel's "Messiah" and
a great many splendid hymns. And there are also contemporary songs
that are truly alive with the very power of God.
One of my all-time favorites -- for Easter or any other time of
the year -- is by the "Second Chapter of Acts," a group that was
around in the early to mid '70s up through 1988. It's called the
Easter Song, and it's about that early morning, nearly two
thousand years ago, when the disciples first began to realize that
Jesus had risen from the dead.
You can listen that song today on your own computer, if you wish.
To do so, just visit the site:
http://www.2ndchapterofacts.com/recordings/west-was-one.htm
Scroll down the page, through the list of songs, until you see
"The Easter Song" on the left, and then choose either RealAudio or
QuickTime format. (You can download free players for either of
these formats.)
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Lyrics to "The Easter Song"
Hear the bells ringing
they're singing
that we can be born again
Hear the bells ringing
they're singing
Christ is risen from the dead
The angel up on the tombstone said, "He is risen, just as He said.
Quickly now, go tell His disciples that Jesus Christ is no longer
dead.
Joy to the world!
He is risen!
Hallelujah!
He's risen!
Hallelujah!
He's Risen!
Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
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Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings.
Oh, and I hope you and yours will all have a very "Happy Easter!"
Jim
Need to know more about how Jesus can change you into a real child
of God? The Bible tells you all about it. Read the Gospel of John,
in the New Testament portion of the Holy Bible. And if you need
more help,
click here.
Can you really change?
Click here.
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