Easter and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Satan has not failed to spin a yarn around the death and resurrection of the Only Begotten Son of God.

Humankind’s fascination with the forbidden that started in the Garden of Eden has allowed Satan to trick us yet again by wrapping a shroud of fantasy and fables around the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Why? To hide and distort the profound mystery and powerful significance of the death of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. 

The truth of His Victory has been buried beneath the clutter of merchandise displaying plastic grass, cuddly rabbits laying colored eggs, and an infinite assortment of Easter baskets filled with jelly beans.

How profane that we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ with everything that the people of His day would have considered profane and unholy. We adorn our tables with a glazed ham, hunt for Easter eggs, and eat chocolate bunnies! 

What do any of these things have to do with Jesus defeating Satan’s claim to us?  Can we not see Satan distracting us and detracting from the reverence of this most sacred event – the death and resurrection of our Lord?

We have been ensnared by the enchantments of fairy tales and charms – the sorcery Fallen Angels used to sedate and seduce us. 

Just as the god of this world (Satan) delights in concealing and cancelling out the real with the counterfeit and corrupting the truth with the myth, the Enemy brings his tasty morsels as substitutes to cover up the Holy Day of First Fruits.

Satan’s demonic narrative has always offered counter-explanations for everything, to question the truth in the minds of those created by God.  

Satan’s goal is to discredit everything the God of Heaven and Earth calls holy and authentic. His plot is to conceal the finished work of the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world and to obscure the gift of eternal life given to take away the penalty of death that had come upon us through sin. 

How often Satan uses the most trivial and carnal distractions to reduce the meaning and significance of the truth to a mockery, to shame the Holy things of God, to make the incomprehensible love of God look foolish!

The Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ was God’s ransom payment to rescue us from our demonic kidnappers who had stolen us away from our Father and held us hostage.

Satan had to do something big to bury the truth about our deliverance from death, so he minimized the Death of Jesus and filled the empty tomb with jelly beans and Easter bunnies!

Though this is not out of line with the Deceiver’s character, it is sad that we fall into the trap with our eyes wide open! We are so easily pulled away from the true meaning of what really happened when Jesus died.

However, Creation did not miss it! The Sky turned as black as night. The Thunder rebuked the shameless folly of those who mocked Him at the foot of the Cross. The Earth broke under the weight of the pain, of having to receive His Holy Blood spilled out on the ground.

The angry mob stood at the foot of the Cross to sneer and mock. His followers had fled. Only a few remained to reverence and mourn. No one realized that they were part of the most profound moment in all of human history. They were the eyewitnesses to the promise of the Father being kept.

The seed of the Serpent was bruising His heel at that very moment, but in three days, the Seed of the Woman would strike the death blow to the head of the Serpent. Bruised for our iniquities, the Head Crusher would stay on the Cross, despising the shame until the battle was done and Death was dead!

In the morning of the third day, Jesus took back His life, fully clothed with glory. He had fought through the rejection of those who mocked Him. The wickedness and wizardry of the god of this world could not stop Him. Satan could not hold Him. The tomb could not keep Him.

The victory was His! The graves of the righteous had opened up and were seen by many witnesses.  The soldiers who saw the stone rolled back were bribed to tell a lie. The devil howled – the good news of freedom must be stopped! 

The evidence of the truth must be hidden! The nine-inch nails could not claim Him. The six-inch-thick veil of the temple, torn from top to bottom, could no longer separate us from God. The way had been made for all of us to now enter the Holy of Holies. 

The Lord Himself appeared and walked again with His followers. He ate with them, and forty days later, ascended into Heaven in front of them. So, what was the Enemy’s next strategy? This God-man must be silenced! 

The demonic hatred and violent contempt of those who scoffed and jeered at his crucifixion has been exchanged for the heaviness of slumber. A stupor has settled over the masses.

Even His followers celebrate this most holy Day of Heaven’s Intervention, renamed as Easter to honor pagan goddesses Ishtar, Asteria, and Ashtaroth, by coloring Easter eggs and gorging themselves on chocolate! 

How can we continue to be content with Satan’s counterfeit distractions when we have seen the real, risen Lamb of God, Who died and rose again for our justification? How can we fall for the devil’s lies unless we have chosen to reject the truth? 

Jesus Christ is the sacrificial Lamb of God Who died in our place –  to take away the sins of whosoever will. And in that moment, those who accept His death in exchange for theirs are given eternal life – their own resurrection from the dead. 

What do YOU choose?