The Easter Season

The Easter Season

The Easter Season celebrates the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. After his crucifixion, death, and burial, three days later, He rose from the grave. By this, He conquered death and redeemed us from sin. The Christian creation of the holiday happened when another pagan celebration was in full swing. Nevertheless, we strive to celebrate God's victory over the grave on this holiday.

Easter Sunday is observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox, as calculated according to tables based in Western churches on the Gregorian calendar and in Orthodox churches on the Julian calendar. The King James Version has it in Acts 12:4, which stands for Passover, as it is rightly rendered in the Revised Version (British and American). There is no trace of Easter celebration in the New Testament. However, some would see an intimation of it in 1 Corinthians 5:7. 7 Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. The Jewish Christians in the early church continued to celebrate the Passover, regarding Christ as the true paschal lamb, and this naturally passed over into a commemoration of the death and resurrection of our Lord or an Easter feast."

His resurrection means the eternal life granted to all who believe in Him. The purpose of Easter also means the full confirmation of all that Jesus taught and preached during His three-year ministry. If He had not risen from the dead or died and not been resurrected, He would have been thought of as just another teacher or prophet. However, His resurrection rebuked all that and provided final and undeniable proof that He was the Son of God and that He had overcome death once and for all. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the core of the Christian gospel. Saint Paul says that if Christ is not raised from the dead, our preaching and hope are in vain (1 Cor. 15:14). Certainly, without the resurrection, there would be no Christian preaching or faith. The apostles of Christ would have continued as the disheartened group, which the Gospel of John depicts as being in hiding for fear of the Jews. They were in total despair until they met the risen Christ (John 20:19). Then they touched Christ's wounds of the nails and spear and ate and drank with Him. The resurrection became the foundation of everything they said and did (Acts 2-4): "...for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have" (Luke 24:39). The resurrection affirms Jesus of Nazareth as not only the prophesied Messiah of Israel but as the King and Lord of a new Jerusalem: a new heaven and a new earth. Easter is celebrated over multiple Sundays this year.