Weekend Thought: What does Easter mean to us?

Sunday is Easter Day when he rose again. What does this time mean for us? To many it is a beautiful story, full of spiritual meaning, but what does it really mean? Is it just the sharing of Easter eggs and a holiday?

How do we view the events as they unfolded from the Friday to the Sunday? Do we really believe that the events written in the Bible are true? Are they fact or fiction? If they are fact then we need to come to terms with this important event and the implications it has in our world and indeed in our lives. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then the whole of Christianity is a lie. St. Paul realised this when he wrote, ‘If Christ be not risen, then our preaching is meaningless, and your faith is worthless.’ Without the resurrection of Jesus, our faith and hope is in vain. However, if the Easter story is true and I believe that it is, then this has a huge implication for us personally.

We can now experience the risen, living Christ in our hearts and lives, as we ask him. Christ ‘with us and in us’ is the Easter theme. What an incredible event that was! We can only marvel at its magnitude and importance and say “Jesus did this for me.” He came so that we might have life. In this one event God reconciled the world to himself. We can only marvel at God’s love for us in this one act of sacrifice.

The Easter story implies that our words, deeds and very thoughts must be Christ centred – kindness, honesty, self-control and humility. Such is the challenge of the Easter message.

Canon Stephen Bradberry