Why The Resurrection Matters, Especially During A Pandemic - Lifeway

Easter in my childhood was marked by photos in front of the flower-adorned cross at my church in my fancy Easter dress, floppy white frilly socks, and white shoes. It smells like deviled eggs, which I hated but thought to be quite a humorously named food to consume on such a holiday. The anxious buzz of an impending egg hunt with our extended family hangs in the air.

Yet, this year again Easter may not be marked by those same traditions, but by newness and scaled back celebrations at church and with family. Although it grieves me to not be celebrating the resurrection exactly as we want this year, the need for hope in times of trouble is palpable, and that hope is only found in the truth of Jesus' resurrection.

Traditions may be missed this year, but what an opportunity we have to strip away what we've added to our Easter celebrations and display the joy and hope we have in a risen Savior to a world full of fear and anxiety that is groping in the darkness for peace!

The point of Easter isn't fancy clothing and family gatherings, although I do love celebrating in these ways. The meaning of Easter, the hinge-point of our faith and the anchor of our hope, is Jesus' resurrection. Without it, our faith is useless and we are still dead in our sins. As C.S. Lewis said of Jesus, without the resurrection Jesus must have been a liar or a lunatic, not the Lord He claimed to be. Jesus could not claim to be the Son of God and promise to return to His people if the substance of those claims wasn't found in His bodily resurrection.

Why does the resurrection matter?

1. The resurrection testifies to the forgiveness of sin and eternal life.

Jesus is the Passover Lamb. Passover was a time of looking back to what God had done to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt (found in Exodus 11–14). The tenth and worst plague resulted in the death of the firstborn in all households, including livestock, but God's people were spared because they had slaughtered a spotless animal and put blood over their doorposts. It was because of this blood and the death of the firstborns in Egypt that God's people were delivered from their oppression, and this was the annual festival being prepared the day that Jesus was crucified on the cross. The day that the Passover lambs were being slaughtered, the perfect Lamb of God was also crucified on the cross so that death might pass us by through the power of His blood.

He is also the spotless lamb sacrificed on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16) to atone or make reparations for sin. Once a year the High Priest would slaughter an animal to pay for the sins of the people while also releasing a scapegoat into the wilderness with the sins of the people on its head, imaging God's removal of sin from the people. Jesus has both made a way for death to pass us by and for the penalty of sin to be paid.