Holy Days?

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.