The Most
Important Holiday
In the
culture of the United States, Christmas stands as the most important
holiday. But in the Christian faith,
Easter is the most important event from among all the other holy days
(holidays) of the year.
Easter
Sunday commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus.
I have been told before that if Jesus had not been born, then Easter
never would have happened, so Christmas is more important. Likewise, I have been told that if Jesus had
not died on the Cross, Easter Sunday would never have happened. Just because something comes first, does not
make it more important. I will explain
why I think the Sunday morning festival is more important soon.
What is
Easter? It is the culmination of the
Holy Week, the week that Jesus entered Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish
Passover, taught in the Temple, was captured by the Sanhedrin police, tried by
both the Jews and Romans, sentenced to crucifixion by the Roman governor,
crucified, died, buried, and resurrected.
Jesus lived about 30 years and spent about three years teaching, but a
third of the gospels talk about this one week.
Each of
the four gospels has a full chapter dedicated to the crucifixion. They each add a different dimension to the
event, but all four agree that it was a horrible death. Christianity teaches that Christ went
willingly to the Cross. Christians
believe that Christ died in place of sinful man. But it was not just death on the Cross that
paid for man’s sins, because many others, literally tens of thousands, died on
crosses. But Jesus went further. He went to Hell for mankind, paying that
debt. You and I could not survive Hell,
but Jesus, a man without sin, took our sin upon himself and suffered our
punishment in Hell.
It is an
awesome thing that Christ took our punishment.
But he didn’t stop with death. He
left Hell on the morning of the third day, Easter Sunday. He conquered death, as Paul repeatedly
states. For a Christian, Jesus’ resurrection
promises that one day we also will be resurrected, freed of sin. It is the basis for our belief in Heaven.
If Jesus
had not been resurrected, his death would have been no different from billions
of other men who have died. Not only
would no one recognize his death, but his birth would be meaningless.
So this
year, don’t just visit the church and then celebrate with a Easter egg hunt and
pictures in the bluebonnets. Consider
what Christ has done for you. If is the
most important event in the history of any man, including you.
Happy
Easter!
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