Easter Sunday commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus, but should it be a once-a-year holiday? The Resurrection stands at the center of the Christian calendar, and should be the focal point for celebrations and commemorations throughout the year.
Early Christians greeted another with the Greek words, "Christos anest," (Christ is risen) with the response being, "Aletos anesti," (He is risen indeed). Shouldn't pastors greet their parishes more often with the words, "Happy Easter," or "He is risen," with the expected response of "He is risen indeed"?
The Resurrection celebration belongs married with the Good Friday celebration. Your admission ticket to the Easter Sunday service is your ticket stub from the Good Friday service. Good Friday was a torturous, terrible day for our Savior the perfectly innocent one that took our place. A great loss can be felt on Good Friday night when Jesus seemed to have lost. But Easter Sunday comes and the battle with life, seemingly lost, is won. He leads the way to victory over defeat, unfair judgment, pain and suffering, abandonment, and death.
Life is made of wins and losses. Have you failed? Have you seemingly been defeated? Abandoned? Lonely? Mistreated and judged unfairly? Just before Jesus faced His sentence and fulfilled His mission He raised Lazarus from the dead.
This symbol is used for humanity - imprisoned and enslaved by death, defeat, and discouragement - but our story has a happy ending. As Jesus stood outside Lazarus' tomb and called him to come out and be resurrected, Jesus the Redeemer stands before humanity and calls for people to come from under their mistakes, errors, and convictions of lack of self-worth and come into a new life that will last forever, beyond death, and has a no-fault insurance plan paid up on Good Friday at the cross.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the keystone of the Christian faith. Christianity teaches that its founder is living today. No other religion of the world makes such a startling claim. Other religions may claim that the spirit of their founder lives on today in his religious teachings, but Christianity claims that its founder Jesus Christ, lives today bodily. Jesus Christ really died but was raised up physically, not just spiritually, from the grave.
What if it's true? In 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, Paul challenges people of the church to consider whether the preaching of Christ's Resurrection is true. He says if Christ was not resurrected, then Paul's preaching is empty, as so is their faith. If Christ has not been raised then Paul is a false witness and their faith is worthless. Then Paul says if Christ was raised then Jesus is the first fruit, the encouraging sign, of those who die.
What a glorious relief. All those previous deductions are swept away with this one great truth. The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the proof and power of Christianity. The empty tomb is the guarantee of the Christian's hope. Talk about improving our credit rating.
Want to know what the future holds? You can know the One who holds the future. Life can become a certain uncertainty. Death does not have the last word, only the next-to-the-last word.
Christ is risen. I don't want to leave these words on the shelf until sometime next spring. I want to celebrate them, believe them, and be empowered by them.
Have a happy Easter every day.
The Rev. Bill Baltz is a member of the Carson Valley Ministers' Association.
