Is Easter just another date on our calendars each Spring, or is it the powerful, spiritual foundation for our faith? What is Easter really about? Is Easter about different music, egg hunts, family gatherings, and Sunrise Services, or is it about the story of the miraculous resurrection power of God that has to be told? Why are so many people drawn to Easter Services who infrequently or never attend the months before or after? Why so many “CEOs” (meaning “Christmas and Easter Only”!)

Do those in our families or neighborhoods go to church on Easter because they got new clothes and need somewhere to show them off? Is it truly a special day on the church and community calendar? Do we decide to go because it is a tradition or because someone makes the effort to invite them? I think many come simply because they consider going to church on Easter is the “Christian Thing to do,” and still many claim to be Christians, even though they show no other evidence of it during the rest of the year.

Easter can never be ignored! Even those who would never admit they believe in miracles want to celebrate Easter. There is something so compelling about the resurrection that people’s hearts are drawn to at least give the Easter story an honest hearing. Non-church people are not sure what they believe, but deep down in their hearts they want to believe that death is not the final reality! They are listening for some Good News. Death is mysterious, uncomfortable, and commonly dreaded. Each home and family has been touched by its dreadful reality. As a result, most everyone has felt some measure of their pending mortality, and that is disconcerting and unsettling.

Then Easter Comes! Easter offers a brilliance of hope, not just a glimmer, but brilliance. Standing in that brilliance is Jesus – suffered, crucified, and gloriously risen! Death seems not to have the final word. Maybe the church that seemed less relevant to them on previous, busy Sundays but has a message of life and hope that alters their view of the future. Easter provides real, genuine hope!

Were I God, I believe I could have made Easter more spectacular! Jesus personally appeared to over 500 people in varied settings and numbers, and they were predominantly believers. That is not how I would have handled the resurrection! His death was excruciatingly public, probably personally witnessed by multiple thousands are a citywide event. Why not make Jesus resurrection as broadly witnessed as His death? Make the fact as undeniable as it should be! Why a host of angels singing at His birth and a mere trump of two angles at the Tomb? The soldiers officially guarding His tomb, the only ones who could have been eyewitnesses, passed out even before the most miraculous event of history occurred! They had no idea what happened, except that the tomb was unexplainably empty and they were bribed to give a plausible cover-up story!

But God’s ways are not our ways! Here is what I have concluded about Easter. The fact of the Resurrection is hidden until the effect of the Resurrection is seen in the everyday lives of those who have experienced the power of the Resurrection! When we read the New Testament, the Resurrection is the single most prominent and recurring theme of the Church’s lifestyle and message. They preached Jesus, crucified…buried…risen!

Those who believed staked their faith on that single truth, and many were martyred for their faith and testimony because they refused to recant their belief in Jesus Christ and His bodily resurrection. They told everyone, however unpopular and unbelievable their testimony seemed – until hundreds became thousands, and thousands became multiple thousands, until today thousands have become hundreds of millions found in every country in the world.

There are many within the circle of your daily influence that you could persuade to join in Easter celebration at the front beach and in our local churches. Plans have been made and all that is lacking is your attendance. Easter must become more than what it has ever been before – it must become the center of our everyday lives, the center of our every activity! It is a fact that Jesus was not martyred for our satisfaction or curiosity, but He died for the sins of the world! Make Easter personal by allowing the Lord of Easter to become your personal Lord this Easter season!