The reason for Easter

Every year, the night before Easter, a group of students paint the walls under the bridge on Campus Drive with the words, “CHRIST IS RISEN” and the verse Matthew 28:6 next to art depicting a cross and an open tomb. And every year, after a week or two, the Easter proclamation is eventually painted over, just like all other murals in the endless circle of paint under the bridge.

But this March, something different happened. Two or three days later, a group of students defaced the sign. “CRAIG! IS RISEN,” the new phrase pronounced, while the verse and cross to its right were whited out to make them appear nearly invisible. Many of my friends were bothered by this, and so was I, because this defacement was in all likelihood an act of spite against Christians. But, setting aside the offence, I realized that “CRAIG! IS RISEN” reveals an often unconsidered part of the Easter events; it shows the mockery, denial and aversion of Jesus’s death and resurrection. But why is Easter such a big deal?

The Easter story is the term for the claims that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and buried and then rose from the grave two days later. These events are recorded from the first century biographies of Jesus’s life that are based on eyewitness accounts. Jesus’s existence, life and death are both attested to by independent and hostile ancient sources and are affirmed by almost all modern scholars. Jesus’s supposed resurrection is argued by scholars to be historical fact because it is the “best explanation” of the available evidence. But the matter of Jesus’s resurrection has been a matter of controversy around the world; “CRAIG! IS RISEN” is only one example of this.

On the other hand, to say that the resurrection was the only controversial aspect of Jesus would be false. Jesus was recorded to have said many things that have far-reaching implications. According to the first century accounts of Jesus’s life, Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed to have the authority to forgive people of their wrongdoings. He claimed to be the only way to attain heaven and a right relationship with God. He claimed that the shedding of His blood would allow people to be forgiven of their wrongs. He claimed that He would be killed and would rise again.

While Christianity includes a moral framework, it is not a moral self-improvement plan that gives humans a set of rules so that they can become better people. As Ravi Zacharias writes, “Jesus Christ did not come to make bad people good, but to make dead people alive.” This is why the resurrection is so critical. Christianity claims that the universe and human beings exist because they were created perfectly by God. The pain, suffering and evil we experience every day is a symptom of our condition, which is spiritually dead because we disobeyed God and have all done and continue to do wrong. God’s standards of justice are so high that the penalty for even the slightest wrong is eternal punishment and separation from him.

But God loved the world so much that He didn’t want everyone to bear damnation. And yet, if he had let our wickedness go unaccounted for, He would not have done justly. Out of perfect love and a need for perfect justice, God sent His only son, Jesus, to take our place. Jesus lived a perfect life on earth and took upon himself the punishment that we deserved (through his crucifixion and spiritual separation from God), so we can have the reward that He deserved and be reunited with God. Jesus’s resurrection is vital because it sealed the deal; this event embodied Jesus’s victory over physical and spiritual death. If Jesus had not been resurrected and had remained dead, the debt for our wrongdoings would not have been fully paid. Because Jesus was resurrected, the costly gift of eternal life is free for you and me to either accept or reject.

At stake in the resurrection is, quite simply, everything. Even the earliest first century Christians knew this and were forthright about it. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians in the first century, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” The resurrection is controversial because on it rests the validity of Jesus’s claims and the success of His atonement for our wrongdoings. We can mock the resurrection, deny it, or paint over and ignore it, but if we are intellectually honest and open-minded, we have to consider the sound possibility that the resurrection really happened. I personally think it did.

If the resurrection did occur, it means that Jesus died while knowing how many people would ultimately reject him. But He loves you and every other person so much that it didn’t matter to Him; He did it anyway. Whether or not you agree with Jesus’s teachings, the one who threw himself under the bus for you is worth knowing. Will your pursuit of autonomy keep you from investigating? If nothing else, know this: the reason for Easter is you.