What happened on Easter? Why is the Resurrection important?
Easter Sunday is the day of rejoicing that follows the sorrow of Good Friday. For Christians, Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the dead. It bears witness to God's enduring promise of eternal life. As the climax of Holy Week, Easter is a time of hope and assurance. It is humanity's turning point from destruction, to glory and salvation.
Jesus died to pay the penalty of death that we deserve for our sin, was buried, and rose with a glorified body, gaining victory over death and the grave. When we put our faith in Him by believing through faith alone in Christ alone, we have the promise of one day having a body like our Lord’s and reigning with Him in heaven.
Philippians 3:20-21 states, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
2 Timothy 2:11-12 says “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. . .” This gives hope to the Christian at Easter time and throughout the year.
Isa 53: 5 But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.
For the first three centuries, the Church celebrated the real meaning of Easter in connection with the Jewish Passover. The Passover began on the evening of the full moon in the Jewish month of Nisan, which coincided with the Spring Equinox.
As the crucifixion occurred on the first day of the feast, early Christians found a scriptural correlation between Jesus and the sacrificial lamb. The Apostle Paul refers to this in his first letter to the Corinthian Church where he states: "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Corinthians 5:7-8) The flexibility of Passover allowed the early Church to celebrate Christ's resurrection any day of the week on which the third day of the festival happened to fall.
Easter is a time of rejoicing for Christians. Protestant Churches have Easter services that include Communion, special sermons and sometimes Easter plays. Many Evangelical Churches have sunrise services that include much singing and rejoicing. Easter Sunday is preceded by the season of Lent, a 40-day period of fasting and repentance culminating in Holy Week and followed by a 50-day Easter season that stretches from Easter to Pentecost.
The purest meaning of Easter is the celebration of the resurrection or rising of Christ after His crucifiction, to heaven, which is the foundation of Christianity. Easter Sunday reminds all Christians of their heavenly calling and of the open door for relationship with God through Jesus, His Son.
If you would like to learn more about why Jesus' death on the cross was so significant for your salvation, please read the following articles: How do I give my heart to Jesus? What do I have to do to receive this gift of God to go to heaven?http://www.whatafriend.co.za/page14a.html
Because of the commercialization and pagan origins of Easter, many churches prefer to refer to it as “Resurrection Sunday.” The rationale is: the more we focus on Christ and the less we focus on the pagan holiday, the better. As previously mentioned, the resurrection of Christ is the central theme of Christianity. Paul says that without this, our faith is futile (1 Corinthians 15:17). What more wonderful reason could we have to celebrate! What is important is the true reason behind our celebration, which is that Christ was resurrected from the dead, making it possible for us to have eternal life (Romans 6:4)!
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