A long time has passed since Easter joined Christmas in the “religious holidays that are really commercial holidays” category for Americans. Easter and Christmas, the two most important Christian holidays of the year, are – not coincidentally – two of the largest commercial holidays of retail’s fiscal year as well. From cards to flowers to eggs to wreaths, there is always a gift to buy and present to wrap. Santa and the Easter Bunny are among other fictional characters used to ignite the imagination of children, spurring dreams of the loads of gifts that Santa will stuff into stockings or that a bunny will set into the same woven basket every year.
I’m not one to judge, I too enjoy opening a gift from a loved one. On Sunday, I received a chocolate egg, a bag of pastel-colored M&M’s, and a bunch of fake, plastic grass. But something is missing if that’s where it ends. Is there a meaning behind the madness, and if not why are we still celebrating? What is the meaning of Easter?
Answer: Christ’s resurrection.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for the sins of man. Three days later he was resurrected and appeared to multiple people over a short time thereafter. His entire purpose in doing this was to make a way that we could acknowledge the work he did on our behalf and live in relationship with God for eternity. A proper understanding of this event would result in true festivity, worthy of giving gifts in celebration.
Chances are that you are a student or employee of SMU, a very respected institution that has provided a solid education to many people for years. SMU this year is celebrating the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.” Throughout the semester, various lectures and presentations have been made showing the different contributions and achievements that have been made as a direct or indirect result of the work of Charles Darwin.
Surrounded in the world of academia, it can be difficult to believe that God is real and that the resurrection happened. Scientific theories (not fact) would tell us that our existence is not a result of God’s actions but of natural selection, and questioning the established theories is dismissed as religious, not scientific thinking. Jesus is therefore dismissed as just another great leader or moral teacher.
I disagree.
The problem is that “scientific approach” to studying the life of Jesus can’t get around who Jesus said he was, the Son of God. I can’t make this point any better than C.S. Lewis so I will close with his words:
“A man who was merely a man and said the things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse… But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
-C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity”
May this article serve as an encouragement and a reminder that Jesus Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed.
Happy Easter!
– Bradley Olmstead
Associate Sports Editor
