April 10, 2023

Things we forgot: Easter Sunday

From Adam:
As I write this, millions of people are celebrating Easter all over the world, but many people who have been examining their faith might be finding this holy day to be an issue. So I want to take this opportunity to clarify a few things.
Deconstruction of ones faith is very much in vogue right now. People who have been hurt by the church may feel like they have no other alternative, and If you find yourself in this position, I fully understand and feel for you. But maybe you should be thinking about the church, which is full of broken people, that are flawed and sinful, and realize that anything that they were able to build would almost certainly also be flawed and broken. It's hard to remove the perfection of God and Jesus from the idea of the church, being that there is a direct relationship between them, but Jesus / God is not the church, we are.

This means that being hurt by the church, or church members, or even just in a church building might be the result of something other than the truth of scripture or the leading of the Holy Spirit. If you have found yourself in a position to confuse the hurt you have felt from the church, and the love you receive from Jesus, it's likely you have the unenviable condition of being taught bad theology, or no theology at all. Or, you are in a broken church system that allows bad theology and practice to continue. This is a very common situation in the modern world.

It's not fun to think about, but there are people who have been allowed to lead, serve, and join our churches who are, at best, mistaken and misled, and at worst, intentionally misleading and predators. Wolves in sheep's clothing as scripture would describe them. As the church we need to be ever vigilant in being aware of these people, and as church members we need to learn discernment. The truth in scripture can quickly reveals the wicked, and quickly correct or point out errors in those who are simply mistaken. But, that's why a lot of "churches" don't teach people how to learn and study scripture any more. It's entirely possible that you may attend a "church" for years, and never learn a significant amount of scripture. You may hear a lot of individual passages, themes, and certain concepts, but learning how to let scripture speak for itself and help you grow in discernment isn't a focus. Most Christians today can not quote any scripture, let alone, actually understand it.

This needs to change, the only tools we have to protect ourselves, and each other from evil and mistakes is prayer, and the truth of scripture. If we aren't learning it, we are going to be lost. We must learn how to read and study scripture, with an attentive ear for what the Spirit is revealing to us. We can be assured that the wicked of the world are learning it so that they can find loopholes, and justify their actions. They can quickly climb the ladder of church leadership because they have found short simple things to say that look and sound like truth. Sometimes, being too clever or convincing is a red flag. We need to be ready.

Now back to Easter. Yes, the name of the holiday is based on a pagan holiday, and some of the things that they celebrated in that pagan holiday are still mixed into Easter, but it wasn't always that way.

Easter Sunday was first called Resurrection Sunday, and it was the celebration of Jesus being risen from the dead on the Sunday after the Passover, three days after he was crucified. But that day has even deeper roots, The Jewish people of Jesus time had the most widely celebrated holy day ever at the time, it was called the Passover, and Christians call it the last supper, a thing we still do in churches.

2000 or so years before Jesus, the Jewish people were in Egypt being mistreated as slaves but the Egyptians. So God called Moses, and sent him to show the Egyptian people that God is God. Keep in mind, Egypt is still to this day renowned for their extensive pantheon of gods. And at the time, they considered their religious system to be the only one of value, So when the Jewish people came to Egypt, they embraced some of these Egyptian practices. But the God of the Jewish people showed the Egyptians that not only was He real, but that He was the only God, by having Moses challenge these priests of false Gods through 10 plagues. At each point the Egyptians attempted parlor tricks to match the amazing miracles that God was doing.

But the last plague ruined the Egyptians. God killed the first-born sons of Egypt in the night, with nothing but His Spirit. No weapons, no armies, just a silent moving of God in the night. The Jewish people were told to sacrifice a lamb and stain the doorways to their houses with the blood of the sacrifice. and when the spirit of the Lord came, it saw the blood and "passed over" their houses.

This is what Jesus celebrated with His disciples the week He was crucified. Some holidays were wilder parties, or stranger events, but this was the most known holiday throughout the world. Everyone had heard of the Passover, and the defeat that the Egyptians had experienced at the hands of the God if Israel. When Jesus celebrated this meal with His disciples, He explained to them that the Salvation that the Jewish people had known in Egypt all those years ago, was just a glimpse of the salvation that they would soon know. Still a sacrifice, and a washing in blood, but unlike the first Passover that spared the Jewish people from the spirit of death as he passed over Egypt, This sacrifice would actually conquer death entirely, by defeating sin and offering eternal life.

it wasn't until after Jesus was captured by the authorities, falsely tried and convicted, executed, buried, and resurrected that they would understand what He meant, but that is what we celebrate on Easter.

Not the Cross, not even an empty grave, but that God keeps His promises. Through Jesus, Sin has lost it's sting, the Holy Spirit has been unleashed on the earth, and Christians have a new and eternal hope where there was once no hope at all.

This is the point of the church. not a building, or a group of people administrating a business of holiness. But the Living God restoring His people and being present with them on the earth, even if only in part.

Please don't mistake this miracle with people in a building singing songs and praising themselves.

Much less, a rabbit and hidden eggs.

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