This is what we normally see on TV commercials and advertising catalogues. This clearly says before the church begins to enjoy and announce the coming of Easter weekend, retailers are always ahead making sure that people are geared up for Easter.
In as much as the retails are the first ones to announce Easter, their announcement is totally different from the announcement of the church – their announcement is to make people consume more without saving, and their symbol for Easter is a bunny, while the announcement of the church is the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the symbol for it is the cross (and Holy Communion).
On the other hand, we have people who argue about the exact date of Easter. Honestly, I do not know what astronomers consider when they compile a calendar for a specific year which always affects the Easter Weekend, but I what I do know is that in the New Testament, Passover is not a day, but a Person, for we find Paul saying “Christ our Passover” (1 Corrinthians 5:7). During Passover, or Easter, as it is known to many, we are not necessarily celebrating a weekend, but we are celebrating a Person – a Person who is a crescendo of God’s thoughts.
A day before His crucifixion, Jesus had a meal with his disciples and He declared that meal as a symbol to His blood and flesh. This shows that Jesus doesn’t only want to prepare a table for us, but He also wants to share a meal with us. Generally, we don’t eat our meals with strangers but we always want to have our meals with people who are dear to us. Therefore, it is during Easter weekend that Jesus announces that He is not a stranger to mankind, but He is a friend of mankind and wants to be remembered not as a lofty God, but a God who is in friendship with humanity.
Mankind has always imagined God as a God of revenge, but in the Person of Jesus, we see a God who dies for His enemies. Above all, Easter teaches that God forgives no matter how big your sin is, and it also teaches us that we should forgive one another without any reason at all.
Romans 5:8 remarks thus, “While we were His enemies, Christ died for us”. Jesus’ death reminds us that God doesn’t prepare a table for us to spite our enemies, but He prepares it to reconcile us with our enemies.
This Easter, express the Christ in you and find it in your heart to forgive someone you have a grudge against. It may be hard but you need this reconciliation for you to enjoy the real Passover (Jesus).
Jesus did not only die for us, but He resurrected. In fact, the death of Jesus means nothing without His resurrection. The Bible is explicitly clear in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is still futile and you are still sinners”. The crucifixion reveals that were blinded by sin and we didn’t recognise our Saviour, but the resurrection of Jesus proves that no matter how lost we were in sin, God didn’t and is not willing to give up on mankind
“He who was delivered over because of transgressions, and was raised because of justification”. Jesus was not raised from the dead because He is the Son of God, that He forever was, neither was He raised because of His omnipotence, but He was raised for our justification. Jesus’ resurrection is not His resuscitation or an event that happened after His death, but it is the evidence of our righteousness, innocence and ultimately the victory we gained because of Him.
Easter is the declaration of God siding with mankind.
Pastor Lulamile Sifuba
Change Bible Church, Daveyton
@lulamilesifuba
In as much as the retails are the first ones to announce Easter, their announcement is totally different from the announcement of the church – their announcement is to make people consume more without saving, and their symbol for Easter is a bunny, while the announcement of the church is the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the symbol for it is the cross (and Holy Communion).
On the other hand, we have people who argue about the exact date of Easter. Honestly, I do not know what astronomers consider when they compile a calendar for a specific year which always affects the Easter Weekend, but I what I do know is that in the New Testament, Passover is not a day, but a Person, for we find Paul saying “Christ our Passover” (1 Corrinthians 5:7). During Passover, or Easter, as it is known to many, we are not necessarily celebrating a weekend, but we are celebrating a Person – a Person who is a crescendo of God’s thoughts.
A day before His crucifixion, Jesus had a meal with his disciples and He declared that meal as a symbol to His blood and flesh. This shows that Jesus doesn’t only want to prepare a table for us, but He also wants to share a meal with us. Generally, we don’t eat our meals with strangers but we always want to have our meals with people who are dear to us. Therefore, it is during Easter weekend that Jesus announces that He is not a stranger to mankind, but He is a friend of mankind and wants to be remembered not as a lofty God, but a God who is in friendship with humanity.
Mankind has always imagined God as a God of revenge, but in the Person of Jesus, we see a God who dies for His enemies. Above all, Easter teaches that God forgives no matter how big your sin is, and it also teaches us that we should forgive one another without any reason at all.
Romans 5:8 remarks thus, “While we were His enemies, Christ died for us”. Jesus’ death reminds us that God doesn’t prepare a table for us to spite our enemies, but He prepares it to reconcile us with our enemies.
This Easter, express the Christ in you and find it in your heart to forgive someone you have a grudge against. It may be hard but you need this reconciliation for you to enjoy the real Passover (Jesus).
Jesus did not only die for us, but He resurrected. In fact, the death of Jesus means nothing without His resurrection. The Bible is explicitly clear in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is still futile and you are still sinners”. The crucifixion reveals that were blinded by sin and we didn’t recognise our Saviour, but the resurrection of Jesus proves that no matter how lost we were in sin, God didn’t and is not willing to give up on mankind
“He who was delivered over because of transgressions, and was raised because of justification”. Jesus was not raised from the dead because He is the Son of God, that He forever was, neither was He raised because of His omnipotence, but He was raised for our justification. Jesus’ resurrection is not His resuscitation or an event that happened after His death, but it is the evidence of our righteousness, innocence and ultimately the victory we gained because of Him.
Easter is the declaration of God siding with mankind.
Pastor Lulamile Sifuba
Change Bible Church, Daveyton
@lulamilesifuba
