In popular culture Easter is the other holiday that Christians celebrate. And it is in many ways considered a lesser holiday, which I think is largely because it does not have quite the marketing team that Christmas has. Oversized egg hiding bunnies and Peeps marshmallow candies hardly compete with Christmas Trees, Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman. If you want further proof of this popular culture glut ask yourself if you have ever heard of a radio station in the run up to Easter dedicating an entire month to nothing but “popular” Easter songs. In fact, I will lower the bar even more and ask if you can simply name two “popular” Easter songs (and I will even spot you Here Comes Peter Cottontail). If Christmas is the Elephant in the room, Easter is more of the house fern in the room. There is nothing wrong with it, but no one pays it much attention. And I can’t decide if this is good or bad. Every Christmas going back to at least 1965 when Charlie Brown lamented the commercialization of Christmas, someone has expressed their disappointment in what Christmas has become believing that its current incarnation makes us miss out on the real point of it all; and that is very much true. However, by Christmas occupying such a large place in the popular mindset it can make it seem like Easter is not very important. It sort of gets viewed in the same way as Flag Day is in comparison to the Fourth of July – cute but not really necessary. However, for the early Church and for much of Christian history Easter was the big day and Christmas was the lesser event. And while I have to confess that I tend to get much more excited about Christmas than I do about Easter – Easter is really the most important event on the Christian Calendar. So let’s take a few moments and examine why today is such a big deal.
This morning we hear of two disciples running to the tomb after Mary Magdalene has told them that the body of Jesus was missing. We read, “Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” I find this passage a little bit mysterious for it says that the disciples believed, but concurrent with that it says that they did not understand. Which I think in some ways may encapsulate the PR difficulty with Easter – it is not easy to understand. The disciples believe that Jesus had risen from the dead but they do not understand what it all meant – Jesus did not leave behind any tracts with names like “What Really Happened on Easter Day.” And honestly, I am not sure any of us fully understand what happened on Easter Day. Theologians have thought about it for centuries and still do not have a single theory. If you would like some theological terms to describe what happened, here are just a few of the ways that people have set about to explain the death and resurrection of Jesus: There is substitutionary atonement, Christus Victor theory, Satisfaction Theory, Recapitulation theory, Moral Influence Theory, Ransom Theory and so on. Babies being born in Mangers are relatively easy to understand whereas death and resurrection are not. However, while theologians may debate the “how”, I think we can fairly safely get to the “what” of today’s events.
C.S. Lewis writing in 1950 had this to say when describing the events of today and it is a little long, but its worth listening to for it gets to the “what” of today’s events. He says, “Something perfectly new in the history of the Universe had happened. Christ had defeated death. The door which had always been locked had for the very first time been forced open. This is something quite distinct from mere ghost-survival. I don’t mean that they disbelieved in ghost-survival. On the contrary, they believed in it so firmly that, on more than one occasion, Christ had had to assure them that He was not a ghost. The point is that while believing in survival they yet regarded the Resurrection as something totally different and new. The Resurrection narratives are not a picture of survival after death; they record how a totally new mode of being has arisen in the universe. Something new had appeared in the universe: as new as the first coming of organic life. This Man, after death, does not get divided into ‘ghost’ and ‘corpse’. A new mode of being has arisen. That is the story. What are we going to make of it?”
This new mode of being as Lewis describes it helps to explain the difficulty that Mary Magdalene had in recognizing Jesus. Jesus did not look like he had a few days earlier. He was not his old self with a few more cuts and bruises (even though those were there), but was rather a being that had passed through death and come back to show not only that it was possible but what this form of life was like. Easter tells us something very different than what a lot of people think. It tells us that we who believe in Jesus Christ will also one day pass through death and emerge as something the same and yet different. We will not be ghosts, nor will we be eternal versions of our current selves, but we will be physical and spiritual beings like we currently are, but glorified and made new. Today is an assurance that we have been made right with God and that death is not the final word. And it also serves as a preview of what comes after death.
Throughout history death has always been the great unknown. Egyptian Pharaohs topped off their tombs with worldly treasure to take on what they saw as their final journey. This treasure was there in order to ensure a smooth transition to the afterlife. Vikings had to be buried or burned with the right kinds of goods so that they could enter the afterlife in the same status as they had had in their previous life and today we have various scientists trying to find the right formula to ensure immortality to those able to pay for it. Everyone across history has tried to figure out what happens when we die and how to guard against something going wrong, but today we are told how it goes down. We are told that death is not the end and that through Christ’s death and resurrection we can participate in that. The price of admission is pretty low, we don’t have to be wealthy or of a certain class, we just have to believe in Jesus as Lord and call upon his name. Easter is about us being with God forever and we will be with God forever in resurrected bodies, like the one Jesus shows to us today.
Christmas certainly looks nicer and has snazzier TV specials, but as far as answering the question that has occupied humanity for at least as long as we have records, Easter is without peer. It answers the big question of what happens. That is what happens after we die. Easter solves the great mystery of life. I could certainly offer theories about why people don’t seem to care that much about it, but most of those would be fairly cynical and Easter is a day of great joy, so let’s not spoil the mood. Instead, let’s rejoice in the fact that we worship a God who sent his Son to save us from ourselves and has given us a pathway to eternal life. Today boldly announces to the world that the thing that has been the most feared across the ages is not something to fear, because as the Prophet Isaiah predicted God has swallowed up death forever. Yes Christ the Lord has risen indeed and through that we may be his both now and forevermore.