Easter is a special time of year. Ask children and they will
say that Easter is for chocolate eggs, Easter Bunny and maybe the Easter Hat
Parade at school. For adults, Easter is a long weekend, a chance to get away.
But there is more to Easter than that.
If Easter really happened, if Jesus died and three days
later he rose again, if this is a true historic event, then we must see
everything a different way. The whole of Christianity hinges on the truth of
Easter. Let me explain.
Some TV channels churn out all sorts of unusual theories at
Easter time, but the true experts now agree that Jesus was a real historic
figure. Professor Edwin Judge, from Macquarie University
in Sydney
But what about the
Easter story? If on the one hand,
Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then the whole meaning of Christianity is a
waste of time. But if he has conquered death, our biggest enemy, then we had
better listen to him. His words suddenly become very powerful.
Here is a quick summary of events. Jesus was about 30 years
old when he began appearing regularly in public. For three years, he travelled around
the country of Israel ,
telling people that the Kingdom
of God
When Jesus finally died and was still on the cross, the
soldiers struck a spear in his side. This produced something very unusual. A mixture of blood and water came out. This
was seen as a sure sign that he was dead. The Romans allowed his friends to
bury Jesus in a limestone cave, already prepared as a tomb for somebody else.
They rolled a big stone across the entrance and posted a guard to stop anybody
from stealing the body. They did this because Jesus was on the public record as
saying he would rise again on the third day.
Three days later, the entrance was exposed; somehow the stone
had been rolled away. The tomb was empty. The guards had fled in disgrace.
Jesus then appeared to some of his followers, he had risen from the dead. Over
the next few weeks he appeared to more than 500 people.
Many have argued that Jesus didn’t really die, the so called
swoon theory, or that his post resurrection appearances were illusions, or that
his followers stole his body and buried it elsewhere. None of these theories holds
up when the record of evidence is examined.
The written evidence is quite specific and can be tested in
the same way that cold case investigations are conducted today. Lee Strobel was
an investigative reporter on the Chicago Tribune. J Warner Wallace, was a
Californian cold case detective. Both started out to prove Christianity was
fake. Both changed their opinions entirely when they carefully examined the
evidence. Both now work to convince
others that the resurrection of Jesus is a real historic fact. You can easily
find them on your internet search engine.
What can we conclude? The events surrounding the life of
Jesus, especially the crucifixion and the resurrection, either happened or they
didn’t. We’re not talking about merely issues of personal belief; we’re talking
about real events of history, they really happened, which puts everything in a
different light.
The death and resurrection of Jesus is the strongest proof
possible that he was who he claimed to be, God in human flesh.
Why did God send Jesus to earth to die such a cruel death?
One can only conclude that the sacrifice of one completely sinless man was
necessary for justice; that Jesus died in my place and in your place. But Jesus
death is only of benefit if we allow him to be the boss of our lives. If we
don’t, then we add insult to injury by turning our backs on such a great
sacrifice.
Easter Eggs are a symbol of new life, of new birth. At
Easter we give these small gifts as a reminder of the greatest gift of all,
when Jesus gave his life that we all can have the chance to live with God
forever.
(This is an addition to a series that ran in the Riverine
Grazier in 2017-2018).
