Why Do We Observe Easter Sunday?
Sasha Bush
Ashland Beacon
“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 KJV
This past Sunday millions of people across the world celebrated Easter Sunday. For some, this meant spending time with loved ones around the dinner table. For others, it meant attending Easter Sunday Church service and of course, for many children, it meant getting to color eggs, go on egg hunts, and let us not forget what every child looks forward to most…an Easter basket. Oh, that lovely basket filled with plastic grass, small trinkets, and candies galore. No matter how you celebrated Easter this past weekend, there is no wrong way to do so as long as you are surrounded by your loved ones and always remember just why it is that we celebrate Easter.
Easter is one of the most important holidays or Holy Days of the Christian faith. It is a time when Christians can glorify and give thanks for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After the crucifixion, death, and burial of Christ, he rose from the grave just three days later. By doing so, he not only conquered death but redeemed us from our sin as we are told in the Bible in 1 John 4:10 KJV, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
The significance of Easter is Jesus Christ’s triumph over death. His resurrection means that eternal life shall be granted to all who believe in him as it is written in John 11:25-26 NKJV, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” What a powerful thought. How many of us would be willing to lay down our lives for the souls of others? Christ’s death on the cross is one of the most heartbreaking and yet most beautiful events in Biblical history. How heartbreaking it is to sit and ponder upon what Christ must have gone through in the days leading up to his crucifixion, and yet how beautiful it is to come to the realization that he loved EACH and EVERY one of us REGARDLESS of our sins, that he was willing to lay down his own life. It is the most compassionate act of love in our history.
Not only is the observance of Easter meant to celebrate his resurrection, but it is also to understand that had the tomb not been emptied on that third day, all those who followed the teachings of Christ would have thought of him as nothing more than a mere man who was claiming to be a prophet. With the resurrection of Christ, this rebuked all of that and provided the final and undeniable proof that He was indeed the Son of God and that He had overcome that which no other could… death. No matter what Easter Sunday looked like for you this weekend, my hope is that it was spent making memories that you will cherish for a lifetime.