A four day weekend for the Easter Bunny? I don’t think so.
Actually, the reason for Easter weekend is something for
greater. You would like me to explain? I would love to!
Let’s start here: If you had been suffering in a Nazi
concentration camp during the Second World War, and your life had become a
depressing fog of hopelessness as people suffered and died all around you, and
along came the Allied forces to deliver you out of that prison camp, tell you
the war was over, and you were now free to go home, THAT would be a good reason
to have an annual celebration of the event.
The Easter Bunny? Not so much.
Now, what if the suffering in a Nazi concentration camp had a
spiritual counterpart that applied to all people who had ever lived? And, what
if this deadly concentration camp held every human being captive, with every
one of them dying in misery and hopelessness?
And, what if, at some time in history, something happened
that had the capability of saving any person out of that horror camp so that
they could have their life back and return home?
And what if the person who designed and created this rescue
mission was still offering humanity the opportunity to be saved from this
prison camp, and continuously gave his gift to all who would receive it?
Let’s add to this.
What if there was a very distinctive reason that the
celebration had to include a Friday and a Sunday? What if the rescue mission involved
a most unusual and powerful event on a Friday, and an equally unusual and
powerful event on a Sunday, and people who wanted to commemorate and celebrate
what was done for them needed a longer-than-usual weekend to express their love
and appreciation to the one who provided for their rescue?
Would you concede that, if something impossibly and
horrifyingly wonderful happened on a particular Friday, and something
impossibly and excitingly wonderful happened on a particular Sunday, that a
long weekend celebration might very well be a very good way of continuing the
joyful memorial?
Now, let’s speak of this in terms of the details of the
rescue mission. The real prison camp is the powerful and deadly world of sin
and death that ruins lives everywhere and always. Sin is the powerful tyrant
that enslaves every human being to its whims and wishes, cursing us all with
its cancerous poison, and guaranteeing a deadly and horrifying and hopeless end
to all our lives, no matter how good or bad they have been.[1]
In the way that a torturous and abusive and murderous prison
camp steals people away from their homes and homeland and enslaves them to its
cruel punishments, sin takes us away from the Father who created us to be his
children, ruins our relationship with him through lies, soul-torture, and
propaganda, and secures our eternal condemnation to the horrors of hell.[2]
As in all wars, there is a price to pay to liberate POW’s. In
this case, the wages of sin is death.[3]
Therefore, the price required to liberate souls from sinful condemnation was
the death of one who was not among the prisoners. This also had to be one who
could die for more than one person. He would need a human nature in order to
die for human prisoners, and he would need a divine nature in order to apply
his death to numerous people, whoever wanted his gift of Freedom.[4]
Since God was determined that he would have children in
fellowship and friendship with him, he designed and enacted a plan in which his
only true Son, sharing the same divine nature as his Father, would enter our
world as a human being, fully retaining his nature as God, in order that he
could both die for human beings, and die for all human beings who would receive
his gift.[5]
As this Son of God came into our world in the person known as
Jesus the Christ, God could then provide an eternal person and a human person
who could die for lost, forsaken, sin-poisoned prisoners of war in a way that
would save as many as would receive his rescue mission.
In historical terms, because Jesus’ death for sin took place
on a Friday, people commemorate that gift by observing a day called “Good
Friday”. While death itself is not a good thing, the fact that God’s Son would
die for our liberation was the goodest thing that has ever been done for us.
However, that is not the end of the story. On the third day
after his death, Jesus was raised from the dead to complete the plan of rescue.
People would not only have someone who paid for their sins, but someone who was
alive to share the newness of life that was now available.[6]
Do you think that someone dying for you, rising again for
you, living for you now, and promising you the assurance of life after death,
would constitute a fairly good reason to have a whole long weekend to
celebrate?
At the very least, that is a far better reason than an Easter
Bunny!
© 2017 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
Editor’s note: This was
originally written as a way to share about Jesus’ death and resurrection with
some young friends and I present it for your encouragement as well. A printable
quarter-fold version can be found at the link in the footnote if you would like
to share it with others.[7]
[1]
Romans 3:23 declares that all people have sinned; Romans 6:23 declares that the
wages we earn from our sin is death. Ephesians 2:1-3 tells us how hopeless this
deadly condition is. John 3:18 tells us that everyone who does not believe in Jesus
is condemned already, and John 3:36 says that this includes the wrath of God
remaining on them because they are guilty of all their sins.
[2]
John 10:10 shows that Jesus came to give life, but the thief comes only to
steal, kill, and destroy any hope of us coming to Jesus and receiving his life.
In Matthew 10:28 Jesus describes hell as a place where both soul and body are
destroyed.
[3]
Romans 6:23
[4]
The fact of Jesus being both divine and human is revealed in passages such as
these: Matthew 1:23 speaks of the birth of the Christ child and explains his
name as “God with us”; John 1:14 says
that “the word”, meaning Jesus the
eternal Son of God, “became flesh and
made his dwelling among us”; Colossians 2:9 says that “the whole fullness of deity dwells in him bodily”.
[5]
Ephesians 1:3-14 gives a beautiful description of God’s determination to adopt
us as his children, and what he provided in Jesus Christ for this to happen. I
Timothy 1:15 states that Christ Jesus came into the world for the express
purpose of saving sinners. John 1:9-13 speaks of how Jesus came into the world,
but the world neither recognized him nor received him. However, those who did
receive him are given the right to adoption as the children of God.
[6]
The gospel records of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all give details of Jesus death
and resurrection. Romans 1:1-6 introduces this to us in summary form, as does I
Peter 1:3.
[7]
Page 1 (main inside page once folded): https://www.dropbox.com/s/embvkbhh57roofw/The%20Reason%20For%20Easter%20-%20Main%20%28Inside%29%20.pdf?dl=0
Page 2 (front, back, inside once folded): https://www.dropbox.com/s/ca00x4j12427cxi/The%20Reason%20For%20Easter%20-%20Cover%20%2B%20Inside%20Covers.pdf?dl=0
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