Easter, Its Meaning

    Good afternoon,

     As with everything I write, please take what you like, leaving the rest.

     Easter we celebrate today.  I know the image usually is about bunnies, pastel colors, and candy---Easter eggs. Originally this holiday---or holy day---is about what occurred after Christ's death, his rising from the dead three days later.

       Last Friday, Christ's crucifixion and death were observed by many.  His death an intense, prolonged form of execution.  It was a severe Roman punishment, not commonly used.

      The victim slowly dies from suffocation.  This transpires while suf-fering excruciating pain.  The origin of "excruciating" is crux, cross.

       Easter is a reminder of its message.  It's an opportunity to consider what transpired on that Friday, more than twenty centuries ago.

      This day allows us to pause from typical duties and what usually preoccupies our minds.  We can consider the message of this day.  The story of Easter is more meaningful than distractions thrown at us by the television, the internet or smartphones.

       Easter's message is that we are not self-sufficient.  We need a power greater than ourselves to re-store us to the sanity, emotional healing, and serenity we seek. The holiday is about divine help available that transcends our limitations.

      More than two millennia ago, a man suffered outside the walls of Jerusalem.  What was considered a victory by his enemies---Christ's death--- was actually a cause for restitution between God and man.  His death became a substitutionary payment for those who believe in and yield their lives Christ.

     The following was written in 1926 by Dr. James Allen. They are worth considering today:

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman

He grew up in another obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
until He was thirty, then for three years
He was an itinerant preacher

He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never had a family
He never owned a house
He never traveled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born

He did none of the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself

He was only thirty three when
the tide of popular opinion turned against him
His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to His enemies
And went through the mockery of a trial

He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
the only property he had on earth

When He was dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend 

[Twenty] centuries have come and gone,
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race,
And the leader of mankind's progress. 

    All the armies that have ever marched
      All the navies that have ever sailed
       All the parliaments that have ever sat
        All the kings that ever reigned put together 

Have not affected the life of mankind on this earth
As powerfully as that One Solitary Life

How About You?  
What does this holiday mean for you?  Do you have any questions about Easter?   Let me know.