What is Easter all about?
It’s all about a man who was tortured to death for telling the truth. There was a kangaroo court who condemned him to death. Mob violence silenced the process of justice. He was flogged mercilessly, seriously abused by soldiers and humiliated. And finally executed by crucifixion, a gruesome, brutal means of death, along with two others who were known committed criminals.
Why? What had he done?
It was said of him that he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, “for God was with him”. He taught the people the way of true religion and how to come to peace of heart; he taught about forgiveness, mercy, and love. Then, why was he condemned?
It was the powerful, religious authorities who objected, because he had an enormous following, and power was slipping from their hands. Their power was threatened and they feared the political consequences with the occupying forces. So, they got rid of him. He was killed, and his body was laid in a tomb.
It all happened about 2,000 years ago, about 2,000 miles away.
So What?
He came back to life!
“Oh, what rubbish! Fairy tales! Pigs might fly!” But wait. EVIDENCE. The tomb was empty!
For all the overwhelming power of the military, religious and political authorities, they could not locate the body. In less than 48 hours (Friday evening to Sunday morning) they utterly failed. Soldiers guarded the tomb. The tomb was sealed tight and secure. Nobody could have stolen the body. Search as they might, they could not find the body.
“Oh, I bet he didn’t die but just swooned”. But the soldiers made sure he was dead; the religious authorities made sure he was dead; the people around at the time knew he was dead, and the men who took his body from the cross and laid him in a tomb knew he was dead. In any case, a man, weakened by all that he had gone through, wouldn’t have had the strength to break through a sealed entrance and have got past the soldiers guarding the tomb.
“I bet they mistook which tomb it was”. Impossible. There was an armed guard at the tomb! They were able identify the tomb well enough.
Then, he showed himself alive to people that Sunday morning and eventually to more than 500 others. Women had brought spices to anoint the body, but when they got to the tomb, it was empty, but for the linen cloths that he had been wrapped in! His friends were utterly dejected at his death, but then they were elated when they saw him. Their confidence returned to them and before long they were preaching about him.
He was, of course, Jesus.
He had shown them the nail prints in his hands and his feet, and the spear wound in his side. There was certainly no doubt that it was Jesus who stood before them.
But why did all this have to happen?
In the Old Testament people had had to learn that a sacrifice had to be made for someone who was guilty of sin; not until the sacrifice had been made could that person be forgiven. The sacrifice had to be a live animal, and the person had to place their hand on the head of the animal as it was slaughtered to show that it represented that person in taking their punishment for their sin.
“How cruel, how gruesome! Poor little lamb!” But it showed how God viewed people’s sin; to Him, our sin is absolutely obnoxious for He is absolutely perfect, and the only way to deal with it is through a sacrificial death.
Death is God’s judgement on sin. God in His great love for people like us chose to send Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins; he died as a substitute for whoever will put their faith in him – not their hand on an animal’s head, but faith in what he did for us.
God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Whoever? Yes, that means it could be you! If you believe in your heart that Jesus did die on your behalf on account of your sin, you will be saved from God’s final judgement and be forgiven and experience His peace in this life and for ever.
Dr Paul Tench