Many people know about Easter. People take off school and work for Easter, go to Easter egg hunts, have Easter family traditions, and buy Easter-themed candy. I would be willing to guess that most people even know what Easter is about unlike so many other popular holidays. Millions of people across the globe celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter every year. Oddly enough, thought, an incredible amount of these people completely skip over a crucial part of the story.
On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate Jesus rising from the dead . . . hang on a sec, JESUS DIED?!?
Oddly enough, people tend to glaze over that minor detail, but it is absolutely crucial to the entire basis of the Christian faith . . . I would be willing to say that it is more important than the resurrection. Yeah, I just went there.
I pose to you this question: What if Jesus had not died? To answer that question, you must answer another question: Why did Jesus have to die? For that, we must go back to the Garden of Eden.
Just after God created Adam, he gave him a seemingly simple rule:
"And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.'" Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV)Later on, Eve was formed, and, based on what she tells the serpent, the same rule applied to her. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, however, they were not killed. Isn't that interesting? Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, laws are given that either condemn people to death or, more commonly, demand an animal be sacrificed in place of the person that committed the sin. If you ever take the time to read about how these sacrifices were to be carried out, they are pretty ridiculously gruesome. What is with all the death?
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23 (NIV)Oh, that's what all the death's about. When you sin, the penalty is death. That's all there is to it. For centuries, people used animals to take their place for this penalty, but that obviously didn't stick very well, because they would be doing that again not long after.
One of the most important of these sacrifices was at the passover when a lamb would be sacrificed. As an interesting parallel, Jesus's last supper (the night before he was crucified) was a celebration of the passover. Did you ever wonder why Jesus is often referred to as a lamb?
"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to out own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth." Isaiah 53:6-7 (NIV)Jesus didn't sin, therefore, he did not warrant death. He, like the lamb at the passover, took our sins upon himself and paid the penalty for our sins. He died the horribly graphic and painful death we earned for him.
Why did Jesus have to die? Jesus died so we wouldn't have to.
What if Jesus had not died? We would still be separated from God by sin and would be cursed to suffer this separation for all eternity.
Think of it on large-scale cosmic terms. Just before Jesus died, he pulled all sins that humanity has ever committed all throughout time, and absorbed them into himself. When he died, he unleashed a wave of redemptive power across all of time, freeing us from the bondage of sin. This even affected the physical world and this wave was unleashed.
"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people." Matthew 27:50-53 (NIV)The redemptive power of Jesus's death caused the temple curtain to rip, and earthquake to happen, and a zombie army to invade Jerusalem. Yeah! That happened! That's some powerful juju!
I saw a poster on campus the other day that was basically set up to facilitate the debate about whether or not Jesus rose from the dead or not and whether or not it matters. As the true heretic I am, I'm going to have to side with the group claiming that it does not matter.
The resurrection of Christ has been explained away as a hoax for centuries. I once heard someone very concerned about whether or not it had been a hoax. What if someone found proof that Jesus had not risen from the dead? What effects would that have? If you ask me, it really shouldn't make that much difference.
For the people of Jesus's time, his resurrection was very important. It proved that he was not a false prophet and that he was the messiah. However, for us in the modern day, we have very strongly accepted the premise that Jesus is the son of God. If you accept that premise, the death of Jesus holds the same power no matter what happened afterward. Some will say that Jesus's resurrection proved his power over death. Personally, I think the zombie horde charging into Jerusalem is pretty strong proof of that.
Don't get me wrong, Christ's resurrection was a truly wonderful thing. What I'm telling you is that you shouldn't skip over his death. THAT was the real victory.
Millions of gods in millions of cultures across all of history have been considered alive. That's nothing special. What makes our god different is that he died. More than that, he died on our behalf. Can you think of anything more wonderful, more beautiful than that?
Christ's greatest victory was in death. Truly, the day in memory of this victory should be called good. Truly, it was a Good Friday.
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