Easter is a day of celebration. For a Christian like me, the two greatest events in human history are Easter and my birth… I mean Jesus’ birth; He’s a little more important than me. Christmas celebrates the Son of God coming to Earth; if I was the Son of God I think I’d pass on that trip (me as Jesus): “I can leave heaven for a place with pain and suffering? No thanks; I’m good.” And Easter celebrates the new covenant God makes with humanity. With Easter we no longer need to kill animals like sheep or bulls as a sacrifice for our sin, which is a big relief for me since I struggle to cut down bushes to be replaced with new landscaping. Now we can just kill animals for food… correction: other people can kill animals for my food since I struggle to cut down bushes to be replaced with new landscaping. Easter is incredible. It needs to be a day of celebration. It needs to be a day of rejoicing, so have your family dinners and eat chocolate; dress up like bunnies and seduce people… I may have confused the Easter Bunny with Playboy Bunnies. Regardless, celebrate the blessing of this day.
Growing up in the Church I often found people treated Easter as a day of sadness, but that’s Good Friday; the day that’s called “Good” because we get it off of work… that might not be the real reason, but it does help make it good. Easter isn’t about death; it’s about life. It’s like Spring. Spring and Easter are about rebirth. Catholic Churches are filled with dead Jesus on crosses, which is really great for pushing guilt and fear: (Dead Jesus) “I’m here because of you. This is your fault. Feel terrible.” If they need to have Him on a cross, they should at least give him a smile or something that says: (Dying Jesus) “I’m doing this because I love you.” His death is meant to show His love (and the Father’s). Regardless, that’s what Good Friday is about: loving humanity enough to suffer and die. Easter, on the other hand, is about Jesus rising from the dead. That’s not a normal thing to do. Maybe if He was a zombie, but He wasn’t… so the Bible says anyway. Although I don’t think Jesus coming back from the dead and eating people’s brains would be easy to hide, so it’s highly unlikely to be what happened: (zombie Jesus) “Hi disciples; I’m back from the dead. Mind if I test how strong your skull is with this bat?”
Easter is ultimately the biggest ‘in-your-face satan’ event in history. Before Jesus started his ministry, there’s the story of His temptation in the dessert where satan tempted Jesus three times to prove His power in order to receive satan’s gifts. The end of Jesus’ human ministry follows a similar situation where Jesus is tempted 3 times to end the risk of suffering (He was brought before Pilate, then Herod, and then Pilate again) and then 3 more times after His condemnation (His walk to Golgotha, being hung on the cross, and then hanging on the cross). Satan did his best to push Jesus to say “Screw this suffering! Time to go crazy on these stupid people trying to kill me.” Instead, Jesus died, waited 3 days, and then He came out of the tomb like ‘ta-da’. The three days was long enough to make the believers give up hope and the haters to feel like they won, but then… This was such an incredible ‘in-your-face’ thing to do. You think you’ve won satan and people killing me? Nope. I win. The empty tomb is the greatest symbol of Jesus’ power: (Jesus) “I defeated death; yea me. You so need to see your faces right now. Hilarious.” This even is also a sign of Jesus’ sense of humor. Besides the in-your-face side to it, He uses a symbol of death to give life; like a metaphoric womb from which He emerges. Whether you think Jesus’ resurrection is real or not, it’s an incredible story. There’s a reason Jesus has changed the world unlike anyone else. And His rising from the dead (without the need to eat human brains) is why today is a day of celebration and renewed hope.
May today be a great day of celebration for you as it will be for me. He is risen! He’s alive, so I can live, and live life to the fullest!
Rev Chad David, ChadDavid.ca, learning to love dumb people