Explaining Easter

Isn’t it amazing to think that for Christ followers, the worst day in the history of the world and the best day in the history of the world are only three days apart.  From the cross to the resurrection, we see the fulfillment of Biblical prophesy as well as evidence of how much God truly loves us.  As we approach this weekend and celebrate Easter, it is more important than ever to be able to explain why this holiday has such meaning to us.  People are hurting around us, and the reality of a Divine Sacrifice may be just what they need to keep going. 

The idea that someone would take away the worst parts of us in the eyes of God, to allow us to be connected to him is so significant to Easter.  However, it is also one of the most difficult to explain to someone who understands neither God nor the Bible. I encourage you to take the time to develop your story of what this means, so that you can share in a way that will be meaningful to those around you.

Here are a few ideas to develop as part of your story:

First – you believe that there is a creator God, who started with light and stayed involved in the creation all the way up to mankind, who were developed enough for God to “make in his own image”.  Of the many ways this has meaning, I believe one that is significant is that God put into us a spiritual element, something no other part of his creation possesses.  The way he is described -actually walking on the earth- it is not a stretch to believe he wanted companionship.

Second – you believe that this God created a perfect world, but gave the choice to us as his greatest creation as to whether we would fully appreciate his gift to us, or if we would choose to go our own way.  To his disappointment, we chose to follow our own ideas rather than go HIS WAY.  It is no surprise to see the outcomes of our stubbornness – the battle of right and wrong fought on so many fronts.

Third – you believe that God never intended the imperfection that our decisions have caused, and he hates that imperfection.  It has basically ruined the relationship we could have had with him – thinking back to his walking in the garden looking for us.  He has basically allowed the world to endure the consequences of our decisions.  Is the selfish nature of man the cause of war, poverty, crime and disease?  Not hard to believe.

Fourth – although He hates the imperfection, He loves His Creation.  History, as presented in the Bible, shows that God provided a way for man to have a reconnect to Him.  Although He sentenced imperfection to death, he allowed for a substitute to take on the sentence.  Sacrifices were well defined, with animals and birds being the most significant substitutes.  They had to die so that their blood would cover up the imperfections and wrongs that each person had done.  This provided a temporary reconnect to God.  However, it had to be repeated over and over again. 

Fifth – There came a point where mankind had developed enough to actually have a spiritual connection directly to God.  Up to this point, God communicated through selected people who shared His word to the masses.  An ordinary person had no way to directly connect to God.  The Spirit which He had placed in us at Creation was the only way for that to happen and that Spirit had been dormant.

Sixth – In order to initiate this Spiritual connection, the imperfections and wrongs had to be accounted for.  God needed an overall sacrifice to clean the slate, so that He would be able to allow persons to connect directly into His spiritual presence.  This connection is not something that could be made, broken, then fixed – the old pattern of sacrifice.  It needed to be a permanent connection, which would require a permanent sacrifice.  The Divine Sacrifice.  God decided to do this with a human sacrifice – something that He had never required before.  However, He did not just select a random human.  He became that Human- being born supernaturally as a God-man.  He didn’t just appear as an adult ready to go, He lived a full life, presenting a message of preparation for our spirit to understand what was coming.  A new way to connect to God.

Good Friday is a celebration of the Sacrifice that God allowed to happen so we could have a clean slate with which to develop a spiritual relationship directly with him.  It was a gruesome death of a human, with all the pain and suffering that could be inflicted.  This provided the evidence that God was serious about a new relationship with mankind.

Easter is a celebration of that fact that God is not constrained by death, even when He takes on human form.  As a human he went to the grave, but he came out as a new creation.  At this point the last preparations for us to receive a connection to God’s spirit were put in motion.  God provided his Spirit form to lead the way.  He said that any human that wanted to be connected to him through this spirit could do so by making a decision to do so.  Rejecting the worldly decision making process and embracing a direct relationship to God.

We are now all able to make a decision to be connected to God spiritually, not depending on a select few men to bring the word of God to us.  We hear this worded many different ways, but it has truly been offered to us as a free gift.  Greater understanding of what this all means is contain in the Bible.

The Bible is a collection of historical proofs, and wisdom of those who saw God in human form, and those who followed and learned.  The people who wrote it were not preparing a Bible, but capturing what was going on as God acted.  Later on these truths were brought together as a book, revealing God’s message to us on how to have this spiritual relationship.  It is not an easy book to read, but the spiritual connection to God allows us to understand it as we study the messages it contains.

Upon taking on this spiritual connection, it becomes easier to see that there is purpose to life – both for the journey and for the final destination.  This purpose is something to be discovered and enjoyed!

So- as you can see, it is easier to explain all this when we have unlimited time and an over abundance of words.  Your challenge is to take what you know, perhaps gain some insight from this argument, and prepare yourself to answer the question of WHY EASTER?  I wish you all the best.