EASTER - A Remembrance the World Dare Not Ignore

To be sure, a person could ignore the celebration of our Lord’s death and resurrection. Each springtime, millions of people do it, just as each year millions of Christians ignore the celebrations held by Islamists, Buddhists or by Hindus. But the fact of Jesus Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection no one can safely ignore.

Jesus Christ is a real person established by history. The Communists taught their children that Jesus Christ never existed, that He was a myth invented by religious dictators in order to seduce and control people. But even the most liberal scholarship has not been able to erase Jesus Christ from history. More books have been written about Jesus Christ and His teachings than about any other subject. To ignore this fact is to close your mind to a whole area of truth that is just as valid as the latest space achievement or the newest discovery in medicine.

The person who ignores Jesus Christ can never really understand human culture. Take a walk through any large art museum and carefully note all of the masterpieces that in some way involve Jesus Christ. You will be amazed at their number.

Or, for that matter, consider the world of music. The great classical composers wrote much religious music that centered on either the person or the work of Jesus Christ. The man or woman who refuses to consider Christ is really refusing to enjoy and understand huge areas of human culture, and this is a tragedy.

The person who chooses to ignore Jesus Christ is actually fooling himself; because Christ came as man to show us WHAT GOD DESIGNED US TO BE. He came as a man THAT HE MIGHT DIE, BE RESURRECTED, AND COME TO LIVE IN PEOPLE IN ORDER TO EMPOWER US TO BE WHAT GOD DESIGNED US TO BE.

The unbeliever who ignores Jesus Christ leaves out of his life the only source of power to save him from sin and then enable him to live a fulfilling life to the glory of God. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

In other words, the people who choose to ignore the remembrance of the events of Easter week are really practicing deception on themselves. They want all the good things of “Christian culture”, but they do not want the Source of these good things. They have no problem enjoying a magnificent painting or a beautiful concert, but they will not acknowledge that Jesus Christ is important enough to know personally, to trust, and to follow.

Why is it that these educated and seemingly intelligent people will practice this deception? Why will they accept the “Christ of culture” but not the Christ of history, the Christ of Calvary?

To begin with, there is an inborn bias in the human spirit that simply does not want God. “All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned, every one, to his own way” (Isa. 53:6). Even the most brilliant scholar is born a lost sinner and has no innate desire to know God or to obey Him.

Evangelist Billy Sunday used to say that sinners cannot find God for the same reason criminals cannot find policemen: They aren‘t looking!

The person who ignores the life, death and resurrection of Christ does so at the peril of his own life. Christianity is an exclusive religion: “Neither is there salvation in any other,” said Peter, “for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts. 4:12). Our modern pluralistic society hates this kind of exclusive message, and tells Christians they are narrow and arrogant, and argues that every religion is good if only the follower is sincere. People forget that it‘s possible to be sincerely wrong. It seems that the wise of the world will often not put a premium on the truth of God. They know too much.

We need not defend everything that goes on in the celebration of this Easter event, because not everything is motivated by a love for Christ or by faith in His message. But the fact of Christ‘s suffering, death and resurrection cannot be ignored. The man or woman who willfully ignores this momentous event in history is making it clear that he or she has no intentions of being honest. These people - educated or uneducated - are deliberately blocking out of their thinking a whole area of truth that simply must not be ignored. If any scientist adopted that same approach in his laboratory experiments, he would be drummed out of the ranks as deceitful and dishonest.

I am not saying that a person must celebrate Easter the way various people do - chocolate bunnies, Easter eggs and Easter clothes, etc. That is not important. What is important is that no person can afford to ignore the Christ of history, the Son of God, whose life, suffering, death and resurrection is celebrated at Easter. Jesus said, “For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).

Advising people to pay no attention to Easter is like telling a dying man to ignore the doctor, or a hungry man to ignore food on the table, or a wandering man to ignore the ranger who came to lead him to safety.

Through the turmoil of the world’s activities, every person must come to the reality of Easter. Christ’s punishment took the place of the punishment I deserved and “...by His stripes, you are healed.” If I accept Christ as my Lord and Savior, then I accept the fact that the whole human race died right up there on Calvary with Him. And also, when I accept Christ, I am resurrected out of the tomb to new life in union with Him.

Yes, God invaded our planet – this is a fact of history. And after the events of Easter week, GOD, IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST, INVADED HUMAN BEINGS TO LIVE IN THEM, TO LIVE THROUGH THEM, AND TO LIVE AS THEM.

This is a fact of faith. NOBODY CAN SAFELY IGNORE IT!

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