The Enduring Messages of Easter

The Enduring Messages of Easter

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara

Every Easter season, Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We celebrate the victory of the Crucified One over death and evil. But before his death and Resurrection, Jesus had spent his earthly ministry doing good, healing those oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38), condemning the injustices of the day, and spreading a religion, a culture that emphasizes the spirit rather than the letter of the law. He called for metanoia, advocated for inter-racial relationship among Jews and non-Jews. He also confronted head-on the status quo and those who had gained from such a corrupt system. Consequently, he was marked for elimination and destruction by the powers that be. When the time came, his own disciple, Judas Iscariot, handed him over to the haters and exchanged his own relationship with Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. As if that was not enough,  Peter, one of his favorites, so to speak, denied him thrice. He was handed over to the Roman authorities by the chief priests of his own religion. He was tried, falsely accused, and unjustly condemned to death by Pilate the Governor. As he was carrying his cross and making his own crucifixion procession, no one from the crowd spoke up in his defense. There was a collective silence of collusion from the people. Everyone, it seemed, had concluded that Jesus broke the law. Even when they were asked by Pilate to choose between Barabbas, the real criminal, and Jesus, the Innocent One, from whom many of them benefitted a lot from, the crowd chose to spare the life of Barabbas and to have Jesus executed (Matt. 27:17). There was no Daniel to disagree and challenge the judgment meted out to Jesus. There was no courageous person like him in the whole crowd to say, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.” There was no one to declare like prophet Daniel, “Are you such fools, you Israelites to condemn a son of Israel without investigation and without clear evidence? (Daniel 13:48). Suzanna, in the Book of Daniel 13 got a better deal than Jesus did. 

To trumpet their deep seated hatred for Jesus, they crucified him outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem. Death by crucifixion was the greatest symbol of intense hatred and rejection of Jesus and everything he was and taught by the very people he loved. Although Jesus paid the price to set us free from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Gal. 3:13), the price he paid was via false accusation, hatred, injustice, and wickedness. 

But guess what friends? Three days after his death, the Crucified and Humiliated One conquered death and resurrected bodily. After his resurrection, he started to appear to his disciples to show and convince them that he is truly risen. Among the many appearances of Jesus to his disciples, my best of all is in Luke 24:35-48. Jesus had come to the disciples at a troubled moment. And after greeting them, “Peace be with you,” he showed them his hands and feet, and then urged them, “Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” To further convince them that he is indeed risen, he asked for something to eat, and when they handed him a piece of baked fish, “he took it and ate it in front of them.” At the end of the encounter, Jesus said to his disciples, “You are witnesses of these things.” 

Beloved, the bodily Resurrection of Jesus is a wonderful sign that heaven and earth are coming together. A body that can be touched and eat has found its way into the realm of heaven. Resurrection is not a hoax. It is not a myth. It is real and true. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, crucified by haters is risen indeed. And the good news is that he is risen to die no more. As we celebrate this unprecedented event, permit me to share with you some of the priceless and enduring lessons of Easter.  

There are many things that can bring someone to the point of despair: learning that your spouse has cheated, sudden death of a loved one, loss of home, jobs, collapse of marriage or relationship etc. All these events and many more can cause anger and bring a person to the point of despair. Despair could be a natural reaction to an unexpected sad event, but if not checked can take away any sense of hope that we have. The first message of Easter is that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Easter highlights the hope and optimism of the Psalmist: “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Ps. 30:6) Easter brought the sorrow and despair of the disciples to an end. Before Easter, they saw him betrayed by one of their own, denied by Peter, falsely accused by the chief priests and elders of the people and then crucified. The disciples had given up their trade and profession to follow Jesus. They had devoted their lives to following him. But when Jesus was arrested, tried, sentenced and executed, all hope seemed lost. They even feared for their own lives: “Will the authorities also come after us?” they must have asked themselves. But in the midst of heightened fear and despair, hope returned when they learned that the Crucified One is risen. Child of God, at the end of the tunnel of fears, despair, uncertainty, struggle, suffering, sickness, failure etc. your light will shine. You will experience the power of the Resurrection that will turn your sorrow into laughter.   

The Resurrection of Jesus teaches me that this world is not it. This world is not all there is; there is more after it. Sometimes the way we live our lives, pursue goals, successes, achievements, etc. give the impression that the natural world we live in is the final framework of our lives and activities. Do not get me wrong! There is nothing wrong pursuing goals, trying to be successful, and attaining some level of achievements, but when we pursue these at the detriment of our ultimate purpose in life— knowing God, loving God and serving God— then we may end up realizing rather too late that the words of the philosopher, “Vanity upon vanity! All things are vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2) is indisputably true. As you work hard and aspire to be successful, remember to always keep your eyes on the heavenly crown.  

While some people are scared of death, others are afraid or concerned about the dying process. By dying process I do not only mean the final hour or hours when different organs of the body begin to shut down but also those times when even a healthy person is worried and fearful about being terminally sick and hospitalized. Some people worry whether they will be alone in times sickness and hospitalization, if they will get the care they need, if family members will be around to support them, if they will be able to endure the pain etc. Regardless of what side we are, one of the the messages of Easter, the Resurrection of Jesus our Lord is that death does not have the final say. Death is not the final word. Good Friday, which can stand for all life’s misfortune is not the final day. The final word is Easter. The final day is Easter. Even after death, there is another life, and the good news is that it is a life that does not cease or end. The resurrected life is a life that can never be threatened by sickness, harm or death itself. After death, there is a “new heaven and a new earth” where lovers of God will be born again. In natural death, we will close our eyes but will reopen them on the other side to behold the Most Ancient Beauty— God. Easter teaches me that God has a wonderful plan for us. So, we should not live as if death were our master. Death may separate us from our loved ones for sometime, but it can never separate us from our Lord. Actually if there is one thing death knows how to do best, it is in uniting the beloved with the Lover completely.  Because of Easter let us begin to see our natural world as a place of learning, growth and maturation towards something greater, stable, peaceful and amazingly beautiful. 

The fourth enduring message of Easter is that there are some things— values, faith, convictions, discipleship etc that worth defending and dying for. Jesus died for the sake of the common good of humanity. He is the Ultimate Good. He went about doing good. He was sinless. Yet, he died. For what? For his values, convictions, for truth and sacrificial love. The epistle of Peter 3:14 affirms that the person who suffers for what is right is indeed blessed. Jesus suffered for what was and is still right, that’s why more than two thousand years after, he is still worshipped, honored and adored all over the whole world. More than 4 million people from around the world travel to Israel every year on pilgrimage to see some of the places that he lived with ministered. Easter teaches me that human life can be willingly offered and sacrificed for the sake of love for the other. 

Easter highlights the triumph of truth, justice and sacrificial love; promises the ultimate victory of good over evil; and teaches that injustice will never win. Wickedness will never win. Lies and deceit will not win. Hatred will never win. Evil did not win. 

The sixth enduring message of Easter is that every human suffering, affliction, misfortune etc has an expiration date.  

The bodily Resurrection of Jesus shows me that I have an Advocate in heaven— an Advocate who has made possible the marriage of heaven and earth. By his Resurrection, Jesus brought together the realm of heaven and earth together.