It is the time of the year again,
when many people around the world will soon be celebrating Easter, or, as some
put it, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some take it very
literally, to the point of re-crucifying and re-raising Him from the dead,
while others say it is only a symbolic commemoration of those events, that took
place some 2000 years ago.
There is no small debate in the
Christian circles, so much about the various aspects and traditions included in
that commemoration, as much as the validity of such celebrations. And this is
not particular to Easter, but it includes all such holidays that have been
labeled as “Christian” ones. Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Assumption
Day, and many more, have become the subject of such debates. And those debates
become sometimes so heated, and adherents of particular opinions become so
dogmatic, that it has led to many splits and divisions in the body of Christ.
And while I understand how this can happen to people who, although claim to be
followers of the Lord, have not been regenerated by the Holy Spirit (John 3:3,
5), I am appalled by the fact that many true followers of the Lord, who love
Him and want to live for Him, get sucked in to such debates that profit nothing
to their spirits.
I must admit that, at some point
in the past, I too was caught up in those debates. That is, until the Lord opened
my eyes to see the point in this issue. Surely, many of those festivities have
their roots in ancient paganism, which made its way into the Christian faith.
But that is a minor point. Many choose to follow tradition, despite knowing
fully well its origins. And I am not going to try to convince anybody about
“the error of their belief and the correctness of mine”. Strife is not from
God. Instead, I will bring up the truth that set me free from such unprofitable
debates, and which brought me deeper in the knowledge of the Lord.
We get into debates because we
have been asking the wrong questions. We ask, “How did those things come
about?”, or “What is the correct way to commemorate Christ’s birth, suffering,
death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven?”, or “How do we celebrate free
from human tradition?”, and other relevant questions. Instead, we need to ask,
“Why did the Lord Jesus come to the
earth, to be born and live as a human, to teach people God’s ways, to suffer
horrible torture, to die on the cross, to be raised from the dead, to appear
risen to His disciples, and then to ascend to heaven?”. This is the real question that, if asked with the pure expectation
to find the truth, will bring us freedom, because the truth is the very same
person of Jesus Christ (John 14:6).
Now, one should seek the answer
directly from the Holy Spirit, who is our guide to the whole truth, as I did.
That way there will no doubt be a convincing and fulfilling truthful reply. But
for the sake of the readers I will say what He showed me. He told me that the
whole reason of the Lord’s coming to my own level was so that I too can see God, that I should die to the
world together with Him, and that I will be raised with Him to a new life!
In other words, the whole problem is that we see those events as something to
be commemorated, instead of something
to be experienced. Just think about
it – what do we commemorate and why? We commemorate events that happened once
in time and that are not to be repeated anymore, and we do that so that we
remember those events to draw certain valuable lessons from them.
You may say, “Ok, so what is
wrong with remembering that time when the Lord was crucified for our sins and
rose for our life? The lessons to be drawn from that are not just valuable, but
life changing”. All right, I concede, but if you say they are life changing, tell
me, how exactly have they changed your
own life? Is it that, because you observe them, they give you the right to
call yourself with the Lord’s name? Or is it that His actions motivate you to
do good works? If that is all, then you have missed the point by thousands of
miles. Let us hear again what the Lord Himself told a very devoted, religious
person: “…Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3). And Paul of Tarsus confirms this: “I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me…” (Galatians 2:20). The Lord’s death and resurrection was not a symbolic
act, but one that ought to change radically every person who comes to Him with
faith. And if this has happened to you, then you will no longer need to
recollect some distant event of the past, but you will be living out that new
life that the Holy Spirit has brought you into, thus making you a living
example of the entire dramatic scope of events that took place 2000 years ago.
If Christ lives in you now, you will have no need of any external rituals and
acts to “help you remember”.
I don’t want to end this without
addressing the various traditions that accompany such holidays. It is a
historically proven fact that many such traditions have found their way by
adoption of pagan rituals, offered to idols before the Lord came to live as a
man. Those are to be rejected without question. But there are other items, such
as food issues: Should we follow a certain pattern of abstaining from certain
foods during those observations? What does the Bible say about this? Here is
what we see: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in
respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are
a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” (Colossians 2:16-17). In other words,
those are just symbols, or shadows. Put in another way, we are free to eat and
drink anything we please, as long as we are not convicted by the Holy Spirit as
doing something sinful. Personally, I find no fault in eating lamb and unleavened
bread during Easter, as is the tradition of the Greek Orthodox faith. The food
has no effect to my soul.
In closing, I want to stress
that, in everything we think and do, the central focus must be on Christ and on
the fact that He is to live through us. When this happens, we see everything
under His point of view. May this become a revelation in all of us.
