Easter and the Christian Year

The Exclamation Point of the Gospel

According to Constance M. Cherry, author of The Worship Architect, the Christian year “refers to a yearlong calendar that marks time according to God’s activities rather than ours.” It tells the story of divine intervention of fallen humanity. The observance of this holy calendar is rooted in feasts and festivals of ancient Israel. Established by God, these holy commemorations were a time for God’s chosen to remember and celebrate their delivery from slavery at the hand of Egypt.

From the establishment of the Christian church (Acts 2), early Christians inherited the weekly pattern of the ancient Jews, keeping the sabbath (seventh day) holy, and worshiping the first day of the week, Sunday. The consistent rhythm of this seven day cycle was at the heart of the development of the Christian year. First century Christians called the first day of the week “the Lord’s Day” to commemorate and honor the resurrection of Jesus. The Lord’s Day is the foundation of the Christian year, and a weekly commemoration and celebration of the resurrection of Christ. By the end of the second century, an annual resurrection feast was established as a celebration of the resurrection known as the Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, or Feast of Easter, or Pascha. The name Pascha is rooted in the Hebrew word pesach, meaning Passover. Pascha was originally regarded as the Passover in the Jewish tradition, but was transferred to mean Easter in the Christian tradition. The annual Feast of Easter was to the Christians what the Passover Feast was to the Jews.

As we observe the Christian year that developed over hundreds of years, we see the full story of God’s love and redemption for a fallen world. Beginning with Advent, we see the anticipation of the coming Messiah, His birth, ministry life, death, resurrection, ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the establishment of the church. At the heart of God’s story is the good news of Jesus, the gospel.

The Christian year is God’s story, and Jesus is the main character. The Gospel is the good news that Jesus was born, lived a perfect life without sin, died to pay the ransom for sinners, and was resurrected to defeat death and provide a way to eternal life for those who believe and accept his free gift of salvation. When Jesus defeated death with His resurrection, He guaranteed that all believers will be resurrected when He returns for them at His second coming (Revelation 1:7–8). When God raised Jesus from the dead, He put an exclamation point on the good news! The gospel was now complete! With Christ’s ascension to heaven following His resurrection, the Holy Spirit could now come at Pentecost and establish the church for the purpose of glorifying God and sharing the gospel!

Without the resurrection there is no life, there is no good news. Without the resurrection, God’s story is not a happy story. Because all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), we would all be destined for an eternity separated from God. When we celebrate Easter on what is also known as Resurrection Sunday, we celebrate the Way that was completed to our Heavenly Father, we celebrate the Truth of the finished work of Christ, and we celebrate the Life that has overcome the death penalty we deserved because of our sin. When we celebrate Easter, we celebrate Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life! We celebrate the Gospel!

This year our churches celebrated Easter as never before because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Missed were many of the aspects that we associate with celebrating Easter such as high church attendance, colorful Easter lilies, and the fanfare of the live worship music, and dressing up for the special day. It has been difficult to be unable to physically gather with our church families during this time, but on Easter many of us felt an extra void because of our need to celebrate such a significant day together. Yet, we still celebrated the Way, the Truth and the Life. Our celebration may have been different this year, but nothing has affected the good news of the gospel! Let’s remember that as we celebrate each Lord’s day, and look forward to Easter celebrations to come when we can gather and celebrate our risen Savior! He has risen! He has risen, indeed!

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