What Makes Easter Awesome
By Austin Cowan
Assistant Web Content Manager
Easter is a joyful holiday when people spend time celebrating faith, hope and love. A lot takes place on this holiday: churches put on large events, families and friends spend time with one another and the world just ends up feeling a little bit sweeter than it normally does. Below are a few elaborations about the awesomeness of Easter.
When celebrating Easter make an effort to surround yourself with friends and family. Life has a time limit and time is a valuable resource, invest it wisely. Go be with your loved ones and enjoy each other’s company. Some great group activities include picnics at a park, cookouts and block parties. Easter is during the Spring time so go spend some time outside. Spring is a beautiful time of the year when everything feels new and alive.
Easter Sunday is the one time of the year when churches everywhere have their highest attendances. Because of the influx of people, churches oftentimes put on large events, such as sunrise services, potlucks and easter egg hunts. These special events are not only fun events for people to go to but allow non-churchgoers a great chance to find out what Christianity is all about. The reason why this is true is because on Easter Sunday churches everywhere preach about the most important part of the Bible, The Gospel. This is the story of Easter and why Christians love Easter:
The core of the Christian faith revolves around the moment when Jesus Christ died on a cross and rose again from the grave three days later. These two events are well known, however, not understood by many. The reason why Jesus dies on a cross is to take the penalty for the sins people have committed. Sin is anything that creates separation from God. Many people see sin as just criminal acts, however, this is not the case. If you believe in the Christian God, then you believe that He alone is perfect. Well since God is perfect He can not be around sin for sin represents imperfection which can not be around God. Therefore man experienced separation from God when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Now God knew that this would happen eventually so He came up with a plan to fix this. Out of love, God’s plan would take away mankind’s penalty for the sins we have committed.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16
God sent his son, Jesus, into the world. (Side-note: If anyone reading this post did not already know that then you need to stop living under a rock. Get out into the world. Remember that you are awesome and worth feeling the love others have for you.) When Jesus entered the world, this was the first time that God came to the Earth in the form of a man. Therefore Jesus was God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. – John 1.1
When Jesus died on the cross something special happened. Jesus took the penalty mankind deserves for the sin we have committed. Now dying on that cross was no pleasurable experience for Jesus for the process of crucifixion is complete torture, if you do not believe go watch The Passion Of The Christ. Crucifixion involved being brutally beaten, flogged and impaled by nails. However, the gospel explains how Jesus chose to die in such a physically violent way so that mankind would not have to die spiritually. Remember that sin creates eternal separation from God. This is why Jesus, the Christ, had to die for the sins of mankind because He was God. For anyone who believe the Bible, they believe that Jesus lived a perfect life thus enabling for his death to take away our sins. Next time you see a cross hanging around somebody’s neck remember that they are actually wearing a Roman torture device. That thought might sound disturbing at first however the level of mercy Jesus showed His people by dying on the cross overshadows the morbidness. Jesus’ mercy is incomprehensible yet comforting for many people.
Some people have a tendency to forget about the second part of the Easter story which took place shortly after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead three days after dying on that cross. Therefore Jesus defeated death. And the gospel states that whoever believes in Jesus Christ will have everlasting life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16
For Jesus to be the Christ means that He is the messiah. Which means that He is the one who God had planned to have come down to the world in order to save mankind. Mankind was saved from a spiritual death when Jesus died on the cross but was given a gift when Jesus rose from the dead. For if Jesus defeated death then He is living. For anyone who believes the Bible they believe that Jesus is currently alive in heaven. The gospel is a joyful story for it teaches that anyone who chooses to believe that Jesus is the Christ can have everlasting life in heaven. This gift that mankind received is a free one which God gave to mankind out of love. In order to be together with us again. The Gospel is the Easter story.
Whatever a person chooses to believe is their choice. The Easter Story is the Gospel. Next Easter, go try something new and visit a church in your area. You never know what you might receive.
Here are some videos that might help the Easter Story make more sense.
Featured image by Austin Cowan.
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