The Meaning of Easter

This weekend Christians will gather in person or virtually to celebrate Easter. I will be worshipping at an outdoor sunrise service on a Florida beach, singing “Alleluia” as the sun rises above the eastern horizon. Easter will be interpreted differently depending on the pulpit, the preacher, and the congregation. Many will address the nature of Jesus’ resurrection.

Some Christians take the Easter story literally, and others interpret it spiritually. Conservative churches insist on a physical resurrection of Jesus from the grave, quoting the risen Christ of the Gospel of Luke. "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."

Progressive Christians may present a more spiritual interpretation of the event, quoting the description of the resurrection given by the apostle Paul. “It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit…. Now I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”

Christians argue over which interpretation of the resurrection is the earliest and most authentic. There was room for both interpretations in first century Christianity, and that remains true today. What is important is what Easter means. For me it means two things.

First, it means that death is not the end. What we really are does not die. Christian philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” I would go further. We are not human beings; we are Being expressed as humans.  

Second, awareness of our true nature can be known in this physical lifetime. That is the reason that the resurrection stories include the physical element. Eternal life is not an afterlife experience; it is a present life experience. We do not have to physically die to know eternal life; we know it now. Jesus taught, “The kingdom of God is within you.” Paul wrote; “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”

Easter is the most important holiday on the Christian calendar. It is certainly important to me. Even more important is knowing the reality of Living Christ every day. As the hymn says, “You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart!”