What is the meaning of Easter?

We all love cute little bunnies and chicks, Easter egg hunts, and jelly beans (or chocolate, if that’s more your thing), but as it turns out, that’s not the actual meaning of Easter. Easter actually kicks off a few days earlier on Good Friday with a much darker start to the holiday, and then wraps up on Easter Sunday with the greatest scene that humanity has ever experienced. 

For Christians, Easter is basically the Superbowl Sunday of our faith. It’s the hinge of our hope; the anchor that plants us firmly in our faith. Easter Sunday is everything — and it is way bigger than chocolate eggs (not that that’s not something to get excited about, but it kind of pales in comparison). 

So what is Easter Sunday? It’s the day in history when we have eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection from the grave. 

But listen, you can’t pick up the last page of the book and hope to make sense of the whole plot. So if you’re new to the whole Jesus thing, Easter Sunday probably sounds like a really weird celebration to you. Like, why did He have to die in the first place? And what does that say about God? And none of this actually makes any sense, especially the part where a dead guy comes back from the dead. 

If any of those questions sound like they have some credence, then you’re in good company. Those are really good questions to ask. Honestly, it’d be a little weird if someone told you the Easter story and you just accepted it at face value and didn’t ask those questions. 

So buckle up — we’re about to walk through some pretty intense stuff in a few short paragraphs. Let’s do this. 

If Easter Sunday celebrates Jesus’ resurrection, why did Jesus have to die in the first place?

This is actually a really good starting point, so let’s kick it all the way back to the ultimate starting point: Adam and Eve. 

You’re probably somewhat familiar with this story: God creates paradise, which is called the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve are created to live in this garden and walk with God, which basically translates to commune with God. They have everything they need; they are literally living in perfection. And every day, they bask in God’s infinite love for them. 

But God knows what we all know is true: True reciprocal love cannot be forced love. God wants Adam and Eve to truly love Him the way He loves them, and He wants them to follow the way He has designed the world. The only way He can do that is to allow them the choice to love Him and follow Him. Because God’s character is not manipulative; it’s compassionate (see Exodus 34:6). 

So, here Adam and Eve are in this perfect garden, and God gives them the choice of whether they want to continue to follow God in His infinite knowledge and His rules for the world, or whether they want to follow their own designs. And they did what we all do — they followed what they wanted to do instead. When they chose to eat the fruit that God told them not to, they committed the first sin. And humanity has been chasing our own hearts and desires instead of God’s heart ever since. 

Here’s the thing about God: He is perfect. Not in the way that we throw that word around as humans, but actually perfect. Which means that He cannot dwell with imperfection. So when Adam and Eve chose to follow themselves instead of God, it created a chasm between humanity and God.

Instead of leaving us to our own devices, God created a sin substitute system — a sacrifice system — that would reunite people back to Him. Because the punishment of sin is death, but God loves humans too much to let us die for our sins, something else had to be a scapegoat in our place. Thus, the animal sacrifice system was born. 

Now, you may be wondering why the punishment for sin is death. That seems kind of harsh, right? So let’s put this in different terms:

Imagine you’re a parent. You have a small child. You spend a ridiculous amount of time, money and love on creating a perfect playroom for your child. Everything is perfect, down to the perfectly organized paintbrushes in the easel. Perfection. It’s time to show the finished product to your child. But as every parent knows, playrooms come with rules to keep everyone safe. 

Imagine that the one rule is don’t paint on the carpet. A simple enough rule. For a while, your kid follows the rule. And then one day, they decide to test that rule. The carpet looks like the perfect place to paint. When you go to check on them, there’s red paint everywhere. All over the carpet. Your child deliberately broke the one rule you had. 

So you take away the paint and you take your child out of the playroom. It’s off limits until you can fix the mess. And now you have to come up with a plan of attack so this doesn’t happen again. Maybe a plastic rug?

In your initial anger, you may have thought, “He will never be allowed in there again. I cannot believe he would do this. The one rule.” You may have thought about grounding your child, taking away the paint and kicking them out of the playroom. But then your compassion kicked in. There was still punishment, but the punishment wasn’t the end. Now there is just a new way to play that includes a safety net, just in case they decide to not listen again. 

Let’s take that same scenario to the extreme, because God is simply more than we are as humans. God cannot be around sin and imperfection because it is an exact contradiction of who He is. And He knows it will destroy anything it touches (can you honestly think of a time that sin worked out well for you?). So anything that sins must cease to exist in a world where God also lives. But God loved humanity too much to let our story end there, and thus the animal sacrifice system was born.

OK, so why did Jesus have to die?

Here’s the thing: Humanity has this nasty habit of sinning. It’s just in our blood. If we’re breathing, we’re choosing to follow our own hearts instead of seeking God’s heart. All of the animal sacrifices in the world couldn’t change our hearts. God didn’t need His people to keep coming to a temple and trying to follow a list of rules; He needed to dwell with His people again. He needed to dwell within His people — within their very souls — and cleanse them from the inside out to truly change their hearts. 

But remember, God cannot dwell with imperfection. So He had to create a way to cleanse people of their sins once and for all. If the punishment for sin is death, then the only sacrifice that would pay for that punishment once and for all would be a perfect sacrifice. The punishment of death couldn’t hold someone who was legitimately perfect, in the same way God is perfect. 

Again, God’s view toward humanity never changed. He was never going to make us pay that price ourselves. He loved us too much. So He took on human form — Jesus — to die in our place. And then He himself bridged the gap of death to reunite humanity with God. 

So, when Jesus was resurrected after being in the tomb for three days, it’s not just a supernatural event that’s kind of cool — it literally marks the reunification of God with His people. And when we believe in Jesus as the resurrected Messiah, we step into that reunification by having the Holy Spirit of God literally dwell within us. We no longer need to go to the temple because we are the temple. We no longer need to offer sacrifice because Jesus is the living sacrifice that atones for all of our past, present and future sins. We are freed from the bondage of sin, and we can live in the fullness of God. 

The Bible tells us that we are made new — that our old lives have been buried with Christ, and that we can stand in the presence of God as perfect sons and daughters because we are made new in Christ. 

Jesus paid for our sins. And if Good Friday had just stopped there, it still would have been good. Our sins are forgiven. Forever. 

But God loved us too much to leave us here alone. He longed to dwell with His people again. So He didn’t just end the rescue plan with Good Friday. He conquered the chasm of death that kept us from living in communion with God, so that we could live in perfect spirit with Him every day. 

That is why Easter Sunday is the anchor of our hope. We don’t have to wait until our lives are over to experience God. We get to do that every single day because of the overwhelming love and sacrifice of Jesus on Easter Sunday.

Centerpoint Church is ready to walk with you on your faith journey

At Centerpoint, our community believes in purpose and passion, and we would love to walk with you on your journey in finding yours. You can also find out what our community’s purpose and passion are all about by checking out some of the past sermons we’ve posted on our website. 

Do you want to grow in your faith, or are you simply curious about who this Jesus guy is? You’re not alone. We encourage you to listen to our podcast series online and welcome you to come to one of our Sunday morning services in Valrico, Florida.