"What Easter Means to Me"

See? the title is in quotation marks.
That is because it was the title of a presentation at my church this Palm Sunday.
It was a great performance; the costuming, makeup, and stage set were all on the minimalist side with nicely subtle hints at realism, the music was consistent with our normally AAAA standard, and our church has no bad actors!

From this photo of the program you can tell that there were six distinctive characters, each of whom gave a monologue about what Easter meant to him/her. I don't know why the last two were identified by a function or position they hold instead of by first names like the first four were. If I had been editor, I would have been all over that deviation from parallel construction, and in my mind I've named the granny Nana Faye and the young pastor Chuck, just in case you were bothered by that too.

As each character told what Easter meant, I could identify with bits and pieces here and there, but anyone who knows me well would not be surprised to hear me say, "Nice, but it's not my story."

Portions of the drama did do a fair job describing what Good Friday means to me, but none of it came close to capturing the meaning that Easter has for me.

Not to Worry.  I can fix that! 

Here's My Story of What Easter Means to Me:
 

Let's revisit Matthew 27:50-52, because this is where Easter begins for me:

 And Jesus having again cried with a great voice, yielded up His spirit. At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split. And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose.

It begins here because, cross-referencing with John 19:30, we know that Jesus had just said, "It is finished," so that was the end of the crucifixion and the start of what came next. My view of Easter is a bit more inter-dimensional than what was presented this morning. The physical rending of that veil in this world was a metaphor for what was happening in the world of the spirit.  Now begins the fulfilling of the Abrahamic Covenant into which Jesus had been circumcised over three decades before. It was now sealed in human blood. A New Covenant would be coming when Jesus reached the heavenly Holy of Holies, but first there was one more place to go: Hell. 

I have heard it preached that Jesus' work was finished on the cross.  Hmm...  yes and no. His this-realm work was finished on the cross, but there was still some spirit-whomping stuff to do. And he had to be dead to do that because He needed to get into Hades. Unless we count visions and such, and I am not, one does not make it into hell alive. 

The disciples who stood near the cross when the preternatural darkness fell (Matthew 27:45) and when the earthquake struck shortly thereafter, were not aware of the events occurring simultaneously in the unseen realm.  They would later get a progressive revelation of this, first when seeing Jesus after his resurrection, more on the day of Pentecost, and yet more as it was revealed through Paul.  Paul would eventually write to the Colossians, "having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross! He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him (2:14-15)." In Hebrews, (also 2:14) we see the same thing, "that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil." Then at Jesus' Revelation to John He says, "I was dead, and behold I am living to the ages of the ages, and I have the keys of Death and of Hades (Revelation 1:18)."  Back in Matthew 16:19 Jesus had told his disciples that he had the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, but after the crucifixion he'd picked up this new set. 

If you ask what Easter means to me, any complete answer is going to have to include the defeat of Satan. Some of the Old Testament authors had seen a glimpse of this, but oddly, in my experience, those prophetic scriptures have shown up more often in Christmas messages than in Resurrection Day sermons!

From my perspective of looking back over a lifetime of Easters, I remember a lot of emphasis being put on the sacrifice part where Jesus is the Lamb of God. That is good and proper, of course. And it makes sense because Easter is inextricably entwined with Passover. I also remember a lot of emphasis on the Risen Lord and the Miracle of New Life. That is good and proper, too.  In fact, the first Easter I attended a church where the songs were projected on the wall instead of read from a hymnal and they skipped Charles Wesley's classic ♫ Christ the Lord is Risen Today ♫, I had to go home and sing it to myself, just so it would feel like Easter Sunday! It is important to acknowledge the "Risen" part. Obviously, the meaning of Easter is multidimensional and encompasses endless insights and new nuances to "that old, old story," but don't skip  this:

THE DOOM OF SATAN

JESUS VICTORIOUS 

Christ's work transcended space and time to overcome evil, and that's the meaning of Easter too.  


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Cast Photo Credit: Jenny Tuggle, Red Locks Photography