City Life Starter

By Scott Fiddler

This is Easter week.

If you are wondering what the big deal about Easter is you are probably not alone. As Easter has become secularized and commercialized, particularly in America, the true meaning of Easter has become obscured. But Easter is my favorite day of the year, more special and meaningful for me than Christmas, Thanksgiving, and yes, even more than President’s Day, whenever and whatever that is. 

For Non-Christians:

I love Easter because of what it provides for non-Christians. If you are a non-Christian, Easter celebrates the proof you are looking for that Jesus is who He said He was. Jewish leaders asked Jesus for proof He was the Son of God. Jesus told them the proof would be that after they killed Him, He would rise from the dead in three days. (John 2:18-21). The resurrection of Jesus, as one converted physician would later say, did not happen in a corner. (Acts 26:26). The resurrection of Jesus is an event rooted in history, as sure as the Fall of Rome, the storming of the Bastille and sinking of the Titanic. Its existence is not dependent upon your belief. By the resurrection, God “furnished proof to all men” that Jesus was who he said He was. (Acts 17:31).

I’m a trial lawyer, and when I’m litigating a case, I try to find out early in the case the other side’s best argument. I may not know all the evidence they will present at trial, but I do know they know, and therefore the argument they lead with is the one they usually think gives them the best chance of winning.

In Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, the chief opponents of Christianity were the leaders of the Jewish religion. They had a vested interest in their religion. The Jewish leaders’ opposition to Christianity is best shown in that they were the ones who were responsible for turning Jesus over to the Romans for crucifixion.

After Jesus’ resurrection, the argument the Jewish leaders decided upon to attempt disprove the resurrection was that Jesus’ disciples had stolen the body. Given what the Jewish leaders had to lose, we must conclude this was the best argument they had. There is something else we can know: It must have been undisputed the tomb was empty.

The easiest way to disprove Jesus’ resurrection would have been to march to the tomb and produce the body. That they didn’t means the tomb was definitely empty. Also, it must mean there was no dispute about where Jesus had been buried. So, the Jewish leaders said Jesus had not been resurrected from the dead but that the disciples had stolen His body from the tomb.

There are a number of problems with this argument and one very big one: the the same disciples who supposedly stole Jesus’ body from the tomb ended up giving their lives in martyrdom based on the truth of the resurrection. All they had to do to avoid martyrdom was to deny the resurrection, to deny Jesus was who He said He was. Some might argue that people throughout history have given their lives based on mistaken ideas about God. I agree. The difference here is that if the disciples stole the body of Jesus that means they gave their lives for something they knew was a lie. That is, of course, absurd.

The better explanation, and the one that is consistent with the disciples’ transformation from despair and timidness to joy and boldness is the historical fact of the resurrection. 

For Christians

For Christians, Easter means something more though. Easter means not just that Jesus was who He said He was, and that His sacrifice on the cross for our sins was effective, but it is proof what God can do in and through Christians. 

The Apostle Paul said that within Christians dwells the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. (Romans 8:11). If the same Spirit dwells in you as raised Jesus from the dead, that same Spirit can transform you, give you victory over sin, and transform the dying world around you.

Have a great Easter!