The meaning of Easter

 

Easter is the most important occasion in the Christian year. On Good Friday we mark the death of Jesus on the cross, and on Sunday, Easter Day, we celebrate His resurrection, His triumph over death. These events are so extraordinary they are almost beyond our normal, human understanding of how things should be.

The apostle John wrote in the New Testament section of the Bible that, ‘God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ 

John was a fisherman in Galilee whose life was completely transformed by his meeting and following Jesus. John became a foundation member of the early church and one of Christianity’s great teachers. Indeed John is among the world’s most successful, most-read authors – along with Paul and Peter, his fellow Christian leaders.  

The quote from John that I used is my favourite, an older translation into English from the Koine Greek that was extensively used in the time of Jesus, 2,000 years ago. There are other translations, all very similar and all with exactly the same meaning.

They tell us that God loves us human beings so much that he took the extraordinary step of sending Jesus, His Son, to live a human life to teach us how he wanted us to live, to show us how by His example, and finally to die for us. Jesus took the punishment for our wrong behaviour (all of it!) – wilful bad behaviour that separates us from God – so that we can be reconciled to God and become members of His family.