On April 9, Christians all around the world will gather at their local churches to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a pivotal moment in Jesus’s ministry and remains a very important aspect of the Christian faith, but why? Why do we continue to celebrate something that happened so long ago? What’s the point of Easter Sunday, and why is it any different from any other Sunday?
These are all great questions, and the answers are in the Bible. 1 Peter 1:3 states, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Again in 1 Corinthians 15:13-14, it reads, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”
These verses from Scripture mention the Resurrection and its importance to the Christian faith, going as far as to say that without the Resurrection, our faith is useless. We have hope because of the Resurrection. When sharing the Gospel, many Christians forget about the Resurrection. They talk about how Jesus lived a perfect life and died for our sins but forget to mention he did not stay dead. The wages for our sin is death, but we have hope in Christ and his victory over death with the Resurrection.
Because of the sheer importance of the Resurrection, we should strive to celebrate and remember it every day of our lives. Even though it happened a long time ago, we should still remember it strongly and be thankful for it on Easter as well as every other day of our lives. It doesn’t lose its importance over time, nor does it lose its impactfulness on our lives. Easter Sunday commemorates the Resurrection in particular. If you can, you should definitely make it a priority to bring the family to church on Easter. Now, as important as that is, it is also important to regularly attend Sunday service and be involved in a local church throughout the year.
A Christian’s life should be an ongoing process of sanctification where you seek to grow and learn more every day. You can’t do that if you only attend church once or twice a year on holidays like Christmas and Easter. You aren’t truly striving to know Christ if you only show up to Easter Sunday service, hear the pastor’s words, nod along enthusiastically, then go home with the intention of waiting another year before stepping foot inside a church again. If this is you, let Easter be a reminder of what God has done. Let it be a time where you truly comprehend the Gospel, that it is by faith alone that you are saved. Let it remind you of the importance of the birth, life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ who suffered on the cross for all our sins.
