What Does Easter Mean to You?

[thedrifter]

What Does Easter Mean to You?
by Armstrong Williams
Posted: 04/06/2007

Many Christians around the world begin celebrating Easter with Lent, a 40-day period before Easter which begins on Ash Wednesday. Holy Week, which begins with Palm Sunday, celebrates the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, where people spread palm branches and clothing before him.Good Friday is the day Jesus died on the cross and, Easter Sunday is Jesus’ resurrection.

As I reflect back on my journey to Israel, the visit to the Mount of Olives where Jesus had his last supper is a reminder of what Easter really means. Many people think of Easter as the colored eggs, plenty of candy, and the Easter Bunny. But I am reminded of Christ’s final journey, from the place where Pontius Pilate condemned him to die, to where he bore his own cross, to the site where he was hung, to the tomb where he rose from the dead. These steps leading to Christ’s crucifixion leave me awakened to the truly beautiful possibilities of life because the very moment Jesus rose from the dead, was the very moment we would be given everlasting life. Christians would now receive new life after death.

As I passed through the Garden of Gethsemane where Christ was delivered to the Romans and paraded through the streets of Jerusalem, before being nailed to a cross, in between two criminals, I recalled that, even as Christ hung on the cross, he saved the repentant soul of one of those criminals. Christ always reached out to those who were different than Himself.

As Christians, we feel comfortable with other Christians. We feel safety in worshipping together. We feel peace in socializing together. And we feel righteousness in standing against those who seek to bring moral and ethical decay to the culture of this nation. But is it enough to just stand together? Is it enough to just stand against? Should we not also, as Christ did, reach out to those who believe and behave differently from us? When was the last time you saw someone in desperation and extended your hand?

We should not make the mistake of thinking that those who believe and behave differently from us cannot be good people. It is too easy to say that those who believe as we do are good and those who believe otherwise are bad. That worldview, while convenient and expedient, is compassionless and ill conceived.

Christians must reach out to those who do not believe. We must provide an example that will inspire others to follow. We must see the good in others. We must condemn behavior and not people. We have nothing to fear in reaching out. Those who believe differently will not shake our beliefs. Those who act differently will not change our behavior. As long as we are grounded in faith, we can walk securely with anyone, anywhere.

So this Easter, let us not just think of chocolate bunnies and colored eggs, but remember the sacrificed and risen Christ. Let us also remember the compassionate Christ who reached out to a person totally different from Himself to provide comfort and salvation. Instead of condemning those who believe and worship differently from us, let us start embracing and having real dialogue for their understanding of our faith and belief system.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

An Easter People: The Centrality of the Resurrection
by Ken Connor
Posted: 04/06/2007

This Sunday Christians around the world will celebrate Easter as a memorial of Christ's resurrection. If Christians are correct about what happened on the first Easter morning, then the resurrection is the single most important event in human history. If true, then in this single event Christ's teachings were validated. He is the Son of God who came to earth as a sacrifice for our sins, and those who accept him by grace through faith will have eternal life. On the other hand, if the resurrection did not occur, then Christianity is a hoax and the claims of Christ were false.

According to some people today, however, whether or not the resurrection actually occurred is of little importance. Confronted with the bold truth claims of Jesus Christ -- for example, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) -- they try to obscure or avoid Christ's declaration by saying they simply revere him as a great moral teacher, nothing more. If archeologists unearthed Jesus' occupied tomb, it would not change their opinion of Christ at all.

Compare this mentality to that of the Apostle Paul: "...if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men..." (1 Cor. 15:17-19) Paul understood the centrality of the resurrection to the Christian faith. He avowed, "...if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." (1 Cor. 14:15) If all we have is this earthly existence, the Apostle affirms "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." (1 Cor. 15:32) Paul understood clearly that ideas have consequences and that what we believe determines how we behave. If we believe that Christ is who he claimed to be and that he defeated death and the grave, we must live for him -- in his presence, under his authority, and for his glory. But if all we have is this earthly existence, we might as well
just live for ourselves because the grave is truly our final resting place.

In this age of relativism, tolerance, and inclusion, Christ's claims of absolutism and exclusivity make many uncomfortable. It is deemed to be in poor taste to assert that there is only one way to God. Therefore, acknowledging Jesus as a great moral teacher is a convenient way of partially embracing him, while at the same time keeping him at a distance. But Jesus doesn't allow us to have it both ways. Christ did not come to earth to merely usher in a new morality. C. S. Lewis explains, "...Christianity is not the promulgation of a moral discovery. It is addressed only to penitents, only to those who admit their disobedience to the known moral law." In other words, Christ did not come to teach morality to those who are ignorant of it. He did not come to offer a new moral law. He came to save those who had fallen short of the existing one. Ultimately, Christ came to save sinners. (1 Tim. 1:15)

The Scriptures teach that salvation comes through Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. In perfect, loving obedience to the Father's will, Christ bore the curse of man's sin. He paid the price of our salvation with his own death. Had the story ended there, one might think that God himself had been defeated, and that there is no hope for any of us. But the story does not end there. On Easter morning, light burst forth from the tomb. Christ conquered death and was risen to new life. Just as Jesus died a physical death, his physical body also rose again. It was the ultimate act of redemption, for in Christ's resurrection, all things were made new.

For Christians, then, there is eternal hope in the death and resurrection of Jesus. With Christ we die to our sins, and in Christ we rise to new life. Christ has promised to restore all things; there is hope even for our aching bones and wrinkled flesh in the resurrection of the body. In that one historical event -- the most important event in human history, when Jesus' dead body was restored to life -- the whole world was given hope that, in Christ, we too can live again. The reality of the resurrection is what prompted St. Augustine to declare, "We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song."

Had Christ simply told mankind of the many ways in which we all fall short of God's perfection, the life of Jesus would have brought only despair, not hope. Who could bear seeing the stark contrast between the perfection of God and the sinfulness of men? But Christ did not bring sorrow and despair, but hope. Our hope is an Easter hope: that in the face of death and deterioration, when confronted with the many sorrows of this world, Christ has triumphed over the grave. In conquering death, Christ promised to renew all things.

This is the one true and lasting hope. Without the resurrection, the Christian religion would be cruelly deceitful. And far from being a great moral teacher, Jesus would be a malicious charlatan.

During this Easter season, we do well to confront the claims of Jesus Christ. We should run with Peter and John to the tomb to see if it is really empty. If it is not, then we should grab all the gusto we can in order to anesthetize us from hopelessness and despair. If it is, we can sing "Alleluia!" for the curse has been broken, death has been defeated, and life eternal is available to those who believe.

God grant that we might proclaim with the apostles of old: "He is risen! With our own eyes we have seen it, he is risen indeed!"

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Easter Striptease and Chocolate Jesus
by L. Brent Bozell III
Posted: 04/06/2007

For all Christians, Easter is an outbreak of joy, a celebration of the resurrection of the risen Lord, marking the full promise of a savior unfolding like a spring flower.

For ABC, it's just another night to sell sex.

During a Monday night broadcast of "Dancing With the Stars," ABC promoted its Easter Sunday lineup, starting with an inspirational episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." So
far, so good. But that's where the good ended.

Then came the plug for a typical episode of "Desperate Housewives," with one catty middle-aged woman saying to another, "I'm this close to seducing my gardener." The other replies, "Been there, done that." And at promo's end, ABC showed another scene of the first woman -- fortysomething, surgically altered Nicolette Sheridan -- stripping off her blouse and skirt to reveal black lacy underthings as the announcer urged, "This Easter, take off your Sunday best, and turn on your favorite shows."

It speaks volumes that the ABC entertainment network groveled before the homosexual lobby when one of the actors on "Grey's Anatomy" uttered its unfavorite F-word about a gay cast-member -- in private, on the set -- spurring ABC to proclaim its utmost "respect" for "differences." But where's the sensitivity and "respect" from ABC when its on-air promos mock tens of millions of American Christians who see Easter as a holy day, the very day one should least advertise the usual saucy Sunday night bed-hopping Olympics?

Sadly, ABC's not alone. Take Comedy Central, always one of television's leading mockers of Christianity. During "South Park" on Wednesday, this network of the Viacom empire showed a promo for Sunday night's episode of "Reno 911." While the word Easter was not used, the Easter plot promised a baptism. "An officer with a dark past finally sees the light, and then some," proclaimed the announcer.

A sleazy woman comes to be baptized in the river in nothing but a sheer white robe, so when she gets wet, the screen is covered with black bars over her private areas. "Whoops-a-daisy," she says of her thinly disguised nudity. "I didn't know you had to bring underwear to a baptism." As she then shakes and shimmies in the see-through wet outfit, the announcer promises, "A revealing new 'Reno 911.'"

It's a televised version of the current fashion of mocking Christians and their celebrations for fun and profit. The newscasts just before Easter focused on a life-size, 200-pound chocolate sculpture of a naked Jesus in his crucified pose displayed at the gallery of the Roger Smith Hotel in New York City.

The artist, a Charles Manson-resembling man named Cosimo Cavallari -- can that really be his real name? -- called his sculpture "My Sweet Lord," a cheeky reference to the George Harrison pop song. He even suggested people should come take a chocolaty bite out of his Jesus. The worst part of all this tweaking was the timing, which was no accident, mocking Christianity at the pinnacle of the Easter Season.

Cavallari's Website shows his appetite for sight gags and publicity stunts, which he defends as "art." His previous works of oddity have including a bed covered with shaved ham and an entire house covered with 10,000 pounds of melted cheese. Let's not omit the letters "V.I.P." spelled out in human excrement.

This was not the only Jesus sculpture in the news. In Chicago, a papier-mache sculpture combining Jesus and Sen. Barack Obama piggy-backed on the holiday season publicity. But in this case, the artist, 24-year-old David Cordero, is an agnostic Obama supporter who feels there are too many expectations surrounding his hero. His dean at the Art Institute of Chicago no doubt instructing his student in the art of controversy, claimed the sculpture was not "a provocative work at all," but merely "opens a set of questions." Artists never mean to provoke or offend, merely open a thoughtful seminar, they insist.

In Florida, one gallery refused to display a version of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" that featured dogs as Jesus and his disciples. Ron Burns called his painting "Dinner and Drinks With Son of Dog." Burns claimed ridiculously that he thought it was merely a "fun idea," and "I wasn't trying to be controversial." The artist announced the painting would "fetch" a remarkable $65,000. He was featured on ABC News, and their anchors fit the ABC mold: They suggested it was a "whimsical riff," an exercise in free expression.

Don't believe any artist or TV executive who would tell you he wasn't attempting to be controversial by opportunistically mocking Christianity when the Christian holy days approach. They are merchants of malice, out to make a killing ... off of a killing.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

The Easter 'Hit' Parade
By Brian Fitzpatrick
April 6, 2007

Christians and Jews are accustomed to cultural elites trying to undermine their religious faith during Lent, Passover and Easter -- but it's never been as bad as this year.

Beginning on February 26, the news and entertainment media have fired a stunning barrage of criticism at religious beliefs, religious practice, and religious symbols. Nothing is too sacred to attack this year, not even the most crucial teachings of Judaism and Christianity.

-- On Easter Sunday, the History Channel will question whether the Bible is God's genuine revelation to mankind.

-- The current -- Holy Week -- issue of Newsweek teases readers with the headline "Is God Real?," and features a debate between a prominent evangelical pastor and an outspoken atheist. National Public Radio also carried an atheist/Christian debate.

-- An April 3 New York Times article dismisses the story of Moses parting the Red Sea as a "myth."

-- Newsweek's March 19 cover story, "The Evolution Revolution," showcases the latest evolutionary theories attempting to explain the development of humanity without God. A March 4 New York Times Magazine piece, "Darwin's God," describes religious belief as "an outgrowth of brain architecture that evolved during early human history."

-- The arts world has mocked Jesus with a life-sized, nude, anatomically correct sculpture made of chocolate, reducing Him to the level of the Easter Bunny.

-- On March 4, the Discovery Channel took the prize. Discovery aired a documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," that claims to have disproved the foundational belief of Christianity: that Jesus rose from the dead.

This year's Easter "Hit" Parade began just five days after the beginning of Lent, at a February 26 press conference. Hollywood über-director James Cameron and Emmy Award-winning director Simcha Jacobovici announced to the world that they have found Jesus' remains, thereby knocking the central pillar out from under the Christian edifice. As the apostle Paul wrote, "if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!" (1 Corinthians 15:17). Cameron's and Jacobovici's conclusions were quickly shredded by a phalanx of Jewish, Christian and secular scholars, but the media's Easter "Hit" Parade marched on.

The Washington Post chose to question the Resurrection in a March 31 story, "A Debate for the Millennia: Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?" The story, by Daniel Burke of Religion News Service, quotes expert witnesses on both sides of the debate, but fairness and balance isn't the issue. The real issue is why the Post decided to raise this particular subject just before the beginning of Holy Week.

Also on March 31, a New York Times story suggested that a "secret" gospel of Mark may describe "Jesus initiating his disciples" with a "homosexual rite." The text, which may be a hoax, was supposedly found in 1958. The discoverer or hoaxer, Columbia historian Morton Smith, wrote a book about it in 1973, and three other authors wrote books about Smith's work in 2005. Reporter Peter Steinfels never explains why the story suddenly became newsworthy on the eve of Holy Week, 2007.

On April 4, author Susan Jacoby posted a column on the Newsweek/Washington Post Web site, asserting "You either believe that Jesus rose from the dead or you don't. The proposition is not subject to any kind of natural proof." However, the Resurrection is subject to historical evidence, such as the eyewitness accounts recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Belief in the Resurrection is not based on blind faith, as Jacoby suggests.

The news and entertainment media routinely take shots at religious faith every Easter season. Honest questioning of all beliefs, sacred or secular, is commendable. How else are we to know whether our beliefs are true? However, the media largely ignore religious doctrine most of the year. The challenges usually come during the holiest seasons, and the timing of these often scurrilous attacks on faith displays a profound hostility toward both God and the faithful. Expect the Easter "Hit" Parade to continue.

Ellie