Easter is central to the Christian faith. Christians believe that Jesus Christ was crucified and died on a Cross on a Friday but rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven on a Sunday. The Friday he died is called the Good Friday, while the Sunday he rose from the dead and came back to life is called Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday is preceded by a forty-day period of fasting and abstinence. It is difficult to understand the full essence of Easter without understanding the story of the original sin.
Pixabay.com
According to the Bible, in the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth. The Heaven became God’s home. He lived there with His Son and the Spirit. He created the Earth for Man. As created, the Earth was without form, and void –all water with no living thing in it. Before speaking into existence the totality of what we now know as the Earth, God first caused His spirit to move over the formless, empty waters. It seems that this was necessary to exact absolute obedience from the waters as He was about to decree the rest of His creation verbally. With that done, the rest of the creation only lasted for six days. It seems that God could have completed it in less than six days, but He rested after each day’s creation to observe His work.
On the first day, God created light by merely saying, “Let there be light.”After observing that the light was good, He separated it from the darkness. He called the light day and darkness night. On the second day, He created the firmament or sky. The second-day creation created a vacuum between the waters and the sky. On the third day, God created the dry land, seas and vegetation – plants, including trees. On the fourth day, God created the sun, the moon and the stars to give light to the Earth and to govern and separate the day and the night. On the fifth day, God created sundry creatures in the seas and on land, and blessed them to multiply and fill the waters, land and the sky with life. After these wonderful creations, God the Father saw that the Earth was good. He thereupon called on God the Son and God the Spirit to join him in creating man in their collective image and likeness, for man to have dominion over every living thing in the seas and on Earth. So, on the sixth day, God made man from whom he made the woman. Although the woman was a later creation, it seems that she was also made in the image and likeness of God. Man and woman were blessed by God, and commanded to be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the Earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over every other living thing in the seas and on Earth.
It seems that the whole of the Earth God created was called Eden. Eastward of Eden, God planted a garden, in the middle of which he placed the first man He created, who was called Adam. For the sustenance and comfort of man, God grew every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food. There was also the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God instructed Adam to eat from every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He made it clear that man would die if he ate from that tree. That became the first law decreed by God. After that law forbidding man from eating from the tree of life, God made the woman called Eve from a rib of Adam and took her to Adam. In appreciation, Adam referred to Eve as “the bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” Both Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden, but not ashamed of their nakedness.
After the wonderful creations, God rested on the seventh day, which Christians consider a holy day.
Among the creatures in the garden was the serpent that the Bible describes as being more subtle than any beast of the field which God made. The serpent cornered and persuaded Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit; she ate the fruit and also “gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”Afterwards, Adam and Eve became aware of their nakedness. God bestowed a curse on each of the participants: the serpent must eat dust, and there would be enmity between its offspring and those of the woman. The woman would experience pain in giving birth and would be dominated by her husband. The man, rather than living in a paradise of abundant fruit trees, must struggle for his sustenance (Gen 3). Also, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, so that they might not eat of the tree of life and live forever.
This is the story of the original sin – the first act of man’s disobedience that alienated man from God – for which man lost the image and likeness of God. This doctrine is summarized in Romans 3:23 thus:“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
According to the Bible, Jesus is God the son and is part of “us” that God referred to when he said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” Because of his love for mankind, Jesus volunteered to come to Earth to atone for man’s original sin. Through his crucifixion and death on the cross, his entombment and resurrection, Jesus paid the penalty for the original sin and offered eternal life to those who believe in him. Easter makes a case for those who believe that human beings are not born pure and therefore require Jesus to be reconciled with God.
Of course, it is only faith that can reinforce the belief that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the human being who believes in Jesus is purified. Once purified he becomes a blank slate who can only be corrupted by the devil or by external forces, like poor parenting, negative environment and social factors when he loses his faith in Jesus.
Either as a creed or allegory, Easter has a lot to teach mankind. Firstly, man is dependent on law and order for his peace and comfort. The breach of the law has its consequences. It pits the violator against the authority that superintends over him. Secondly, outlaws require rehumanization to reconcile them with the state. Thirdly, mediators are not only people who talk to both parties but include those who are ready to put their life on the line to reconcile warring parties. Love is not so much about sharing affections as it is about readiness and preparedness to make the absolute sacrifice for the loved object. Fourthly, but for sin, man is capable of conquering death. Our limitation often results from wantonness, indiscipline, lack of spirituality, and of moderation. The Christian should not only conquer all trials and tribulations or entrapment of any kind but also be able to conquer death. Fifthly, blaming our limitations on others is an exhibition of lack of spirituality. Jesus lived under occupation. Besides the oppressive colonial legal regime in which he lived, he was opposed and hated by the elite of his time; he was betrayed by his people; he was falsely accused, tried by a kangaroo court and crucified. He bore all the pains in good stride and prayed to God to forgive his persecutors. He transcended the meanness of his persecutors. Instead of using influence or asking God to intervene on his behalf, he interceded on behalf of his oppressors by reaching out to God to forgive them. That is why he has outlasted the empire of evil that crucified him. Sixthly, love is a potent tool with which to fight the enemy. Jesus did not conquer his adversaries with any force of armies and physical weapons, but by weapons of love. Love planted in the heart of individuals is more persuasive and effective than all the weapons of war made by man. If love abides in the heart of leaders and the people throughout the world, there will be no wars; there will be no terrorism or threat to our civilization of any kind. The world is sliding into the abyss because there is no love to conquer the evil in the heart of men. Seventhly, he who wants to be a saviour or hero of the people must be ready to sacrifice himself for the people.
The Easter season is therefore not the time for you to revel in merriment or debauchery. Let Easter be a symbol of the finest aims and aspirations of the human heart. Let it typify in you the duty to comfort your sorrowing neighbour. From Easter, I know that there is no kindness, no generosity, no love or respect for others that does not involve self-denial. Jesus died for humanity to demonstrate not only love but to emphasize the point that he who would be a Saviour must somewhere and somehow be upon a cross.
