Herein, a quickly combobuled and extremely long-winded Easter essay (it was originally just going to be nice and bite-sized in two pages). Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. Well, maybe not the footnotes part.
Why Does Easter Matter?
Or, Surprised by Hope in Springtime
“Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.” – Martin Luther
Right now I’m watching the apple-green trees lift and sway with gusto as the slyphic wind sweeps through our neighborhood. (As well as coating my car in histamine-inducing pixie dust plumes of pollen.) The songbirds are all a-twitter, floating heady with the billowing branches; squirrels are scampering about, frisking and frolicking. Along the highway and roadsides and lush meadows in Texas, just when they think we’re not looking, cascades of bluebonnets are peering out here, there, and everywhere. Peaseblossoms and tanaquills too, beaming bright and glorious, telling us springtime is in full bloom.
People walk about glassy-eyed and day-dreaming, blinking in the warm sunshine, slow to take in all the pleroma of greenery. I’m reminded that elsewhere, those confined indoors, suffering from sickness and old age, struggle to keep pace with the transition - the decrepit hand slowly raising itself to the windowsill to see the cherry blossoms in the garden in magnificent bridal array.
Like the joyful tidings of Christmastime for all peoples (Luke 2:10), the hope of Easter Sunday marks the other great monumental hinge of history – when all the world began to feel the rush of wind carrying the message of new life. Let us take a look together at some of that history, together with the symbols and significance of Easter.
From Egypt to Israel to England…
Easter wasn’t always called Easter. The origin of the festival comes from the story of the Jewish Passover (or Paschal Seder). The Most High God, identifying Himself as both the Self-Sustaining God of the Universe and the ancestral God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (see Luke 20:37-38), had adopted the Jewish people to be His own special chosen people or “firstborn son” representing a community of God on earth. But for hundreds of years He allowed the Egyptians to keep them in bondage and unable to worship Him.
Finally, God showed the might of His power by rescuing them from the ruler and gods of Egypt (Exodus 12:12), destroying their nation in order to free the Jews. The Jews were spared because of a special instruction God told them to do: to smear the doorposts of their houses with the blood of a lamb as a sign of protection for their families. Additionally for us, the story of the Passover illustrates how God works to liberate His people from slavery to sin and idolatry, which is represented by Egypt.
All this happened around 1446 B.C. Later, when Jesus came down into the world, He was declared to be “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). In celebrating the Passover meal the night before His death, He raised a cup of wine and declared, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). In this way, Jesus became the true Passover lamb (1 Cor 5:7) sacrificed and punished by God in our place for all of our wrong-doing.
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| "The Dream of the Rood" ©2007-2012 ~MrVisions |
Now how did we get from the empty tomb to this modern holiday with bunnies and eggs? When Christianity reached England, the symbols and practices of pagan Spring festivals dedicated to Ēostre, the Germanic pagan goddess of Spring and fertility (think bunnies) and the dawn (i.e., the east) began to be absorbed into the Spring celebration of the Resurrection of Christ.1 (Though some see a connection to the German word for resurrection—auferstehung).2 At any rate, Ēostre faded away into obscurity as Christ supersedes all things Spring-related.
Symbols of the Story
I used to think the Christian celebration of the Resurrection had quite a different symbolism than of today’s chocolate bunnies and colored eggs of medieval times. I’ve come to find the folk custom of decorating eggs at springtime was fairly common around the ancient world. The egg as a creation or fertility symbol dates back to our earliest stories. I’ll list a few.3
Among the Egyptians, an egg is the source of the sun or solar deities; in India, likewise in the Chandogya Upanishad, the world or universe was created as an egg called the hiranyagarbha. Two founders of Korean kingdoms, Chumong and Hyokkose both came from eggs. The Nihongi records that in Japanese mythology Heaven and Earth were at first formless and unseparated, like an egg.
In China, it was P'an Ku who emerged from the world egg, as well as T’ang, founder of the Shang Dynasty. Giving red eggs is also associated with Xi Wangmu and Tin Hau (天后), sort of Heavenly Queens – you might think of Ishtar or Catholic Mary or Amaterasu. But the custom would have predated those ‘goddesses’ by thousands of years. Even today, painted eggs (红鸡蛋) are exchanged on birthdays – such as a red egg and ginger party for a one-month old baby – and at New Years, Chinese would eat eggs as a charm against sickness and evil spirits.
Sometime after A.D. 70, the egg was incorporated into the Jewish Passover meal. Some Jews today observe the festival of Lag B’Omer with bonfires and the exchange of colored eggs on the thirty-third day between Passover and Pentecost. Also the celebration of Purim in Yemen incorporates painted eggs. In Persia, Muslims give each other red eggs at Ramadan.
Red eggs are exchanged by couples before marriage in Central and Eastern Europe, the color red in the Christian tradition representing not good luck or long life, but the blood of Christ. A child’s grave dating to around A.D. 320 was uncovered in Germany with two decorated eggs inside. In the first century A.D., Clement of Rome compared the Resurrection to the legend of the phoenix reborn (from its egg). From then on, the phoenix, usually associated with China, became an early symbol of Christianity. The natural parallel being that Christ came up from the grave like a bird from its shell.
Besides eggs, the other main Christian symbol used to celebrate the holiday is the Easter Lily (Lilium longiflorum; 鉄砲百合), which is native to Japan. Similar to painted eggs, the Easter Lily has plenty of embellished (and I think unimaginative) apocryphal stories. For our purposes, we simply need to remember the whiteness symbolizing the purity of Christ and the shape of the petals resembling a trumpet, like the one that will herald the return of Jesus to judge the earth (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
Putting the ‘East’ back into Easter
“It seems that the Good News was already preached there but that its light first dimmed because of their sins and false teachings.” – Francis Xavier 4
Unfortunately, people often tend to brand Jesus as a “Western god” and Christianity as a “Western religion.” But they don’t know their history too well. Christianity started as a Jewish movement in the Middle East, with its roots going back to Abraham, and before that with Noah, who is the common ancestor of all the peoples of the world. Noah, who is your ancestor and mine, worshipped the Most High God. The ancient Chinese, for example, worshipped Him in olden times as ShangDi (上帝), the Heavenly King.5
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| Not Americans |
If that seems like a wide gap of years between those countries, it probably is. Some guys think there’s evidence for a Christian community dating to the 800s or possibly 600s found in the Koryuji (広隆寺) Temple in Kyoto: a piece of the Gospel of Matthew preserved in Chinese. Others point to bas reliefs and stone carvings with biblical stories recording that the gospel reached China as early as A.D. 86 or perhaps the 60s during the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 25-220).6 Keikyo Christians from the country of “Yuzuki” traveling the Silk Road evidently ended up in Nara Japan around A.D. 198 or A.D. 356. The evidence for much of this is rather circumstantial, so I would advise taking it with a grain of salt for now, but it's still rather curious.7 I’ve heard earlier numbers too, but regardless, the point stands. “Western religion” indeed.
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| Map of the Silk Road |
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| Now what does that remind us of? (To Christians, a cross. To Japanese, 鳥居?) |
So What Does it Matter to Me and to You?
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” – C.S. Lewis
So what’s the significance of Easter? What’s the big deal for those in the East? What does the resurrection of Jesus matter to people in Japan?
The sunrise is not particular to just one country or land, but shared by all. So too the need for spiritual life in Jesus is also not confined to any particular nation and language. All men need to find a way to have a rock-solid, unquenchable hope that doesn’t disappoint in the midst of life’s storms. We need to lean and depend on Someone stronger than us. But even more than of all that, deep down all men need freedom from the guilt and shame of sin-stained lives. All men are under the curse of death.
When we stop and consider our offenses against the God Most High, Creator of Heaven and Earth, they are many and serious. Do you think your sin is something like some dirt that you can just as easily wash off your hands? Do you think all you have to be is say you’re sorry and try to be sincere about being better in the future? Does that work for criminals when they’re being sentenced in court?
This is the only question that matters. How can you rest until you find the answer to know what can wash away your sins? For dirty hands can’t clean a dirty heart. Only something clean can clean something dirty.
Last week a Korean student of mine lost her grandfather. As we talked about funeral customs, she wondered why at Christian funerals there is music and singing? Isn’t it inappropriate at such a time?
I answered that we Christians die with a smile on our faces and our families do not mourn as those that have no hope, because when we give our lives to Jesus, He gives us the joyful assurance of being allowed into the Kingdom of His Heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Our life is intrinsically tied to His (John 14:19; 2 Corinthians 4:14; Romans 6:8). So why would be have any need to fear? We have everything to gain in death (Philippians 1:21).
“Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” -1 Peter 1:3God, in His great mercy, has sprinkled us with a clean conscience toward Him. In the substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus, He has effected reconciliation between sinful man and holy God. We can enter His house, approach His presence, and enjoy relationship and fellowship with our Maker.
The other day in class, a student from Turkey asked me if I believed in the Resurrection of Jesus. On the one hand, I was pleased that she asked it, but I also wondered about how she could ever consider such an idea. I mean, how could I be a Christian and not believe in a living savior (besides the elementary matter of its historically attestation)? It’d be like a man claiming to be married for many years, but somehow being unable to describe his wife or recognize her face or voice; furthermore he has no ring, and the court records have no such filing. It’s a contradiction in terms. Such a man has no marriage relationship. And such a person who thinks of the resurrection in only impersonal or historical terms and has never met Jesus himself is in no way a Christian.
Furthermore, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then who is it that has been going around for thousands of years appearing to people and changing their lives? People like Mary, Peter, John, Thomas, Stephen, Paul, beside countless Christians down the ages – and me.
I say again, who is it that’s been speaking to me all these years (who sounds rather like Jesus in the Bible)?
By definition, there’s no tension or difficulty for the true Christian to ‘believe in’ or intellectually assent to the resurrection – how could there be? One might as well ask if I believed that my mother existed. Yes, I know it quite well; there she is in the next room. In the same way, I know very well that the resurrection is true in my own life: when I was five years old, He gave my spirit new life to know and follow Him.
On a purely logical level, as Paul the Apostle said, if Jesus did not literally rise bodily from the dead, then the gospel is empty and useless and a lie, He was not the Messiah He said He was, Christianity is a wicked sham, there is no holy and acceptable substitute for us, and we are all still left helpless, cursed in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:12-22).
Because He is Risen…
“For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will…Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice” (John 5:21, 24-28).Jesus is full of everlasting life like a deep spring of cool, cool water. Like an ever-expanding balloon that never pops. Ever try to hold a balloon under water? Death could no more hold him down than the ocean could drown the sun. Jesus said that as the righteous one, he had power over life and death and then proved it. It was impossible for death to hold him in the grave. Now he stands as King of Heaven, unique in His resurrection, offering his righteous life as the cure to you and to me. The Festival of the Resurrection is the fulfillment of the Passover sacrifice.
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| Amaterasu, eat your heart out |
-Because He is risen, all your sins against God can be forgiven through His sacrifice (Colossians 2:12-15, etc.).
-Because He is risen, you can be turn away from idols and be spared from the coming wrath of God (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).
-Because He is risen, He can clothe you with His righteousness, share that resurrection life with you, so that you too can be raised up and granted entrance into the Kingdom of His Heaven (2 Corinthians 4:14).
-Because His is risen, He can give you the power to overcome all the temptations and traps that would keep you enslaved to evil desires, and a steadfast hope and joy and peace in the face of doubt, uncertainty, and fear in life (Romans 1:4; Romans 6:3-11; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Timothy 2:11-13).
-Because He is risen, He will judge all the world, as Lord of the living and dead, that does not receive Him as King (Acts 17:31; Romans 14:8–12).
-Because His is risen, He deserves all of our honor and glory and obedience and devotion and worship and praise and thanksgiving. He gave His life’s blood to purchase us. Now all who have received Him, belong to Him forever (Revelation 4:11; Philippians 2:9-11).
The cosmic battle has been fought. Death and sin and evil are defeated. Jesus, the Almighty God, is the victorious champion. Until now you have be on the side of the army of sin, resisting the authority of God. Now the champion is near to punishing the rest of the defeated enemy, including you. But by giving His life to win the victory, He has done an astonishing thing. He has made the offer to any of the enemy free pardon and forgiveness and the chance to join His side.
When someone surrenders their heart to follow God, Jesus comes to sing our fears to rest. Our hurts and woundings, our tears and sorrows, our loneliness and emptiness, our hopeless failures, anxieties, and secret insecurities – Jesus has power over all of our brokenness (John 20:11-13; Revelation 21:4).
Are you beginning to see why Christ-followers get so excited about celebrating this “Feast of feasts, Celebration of celebrations”? Do you catch something of the anticipation? With the triumphant ringing of church bells, we also have the traditional greeting of the day: “Christ is risen!” and in reply: “He is risen indeed!”
“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades" (Revelation 1:17-18).
But knowing these things makes no difference for you unless you personally surrender your old life to Him and experience His Resurrection for yourself. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
Or, as they say in the East:
「このわたしが、死人を生き返らせ、もう一度いのちを与えるのです。わたしを信じる者は、たといほかの人と同じように死んでも、また生きるのです。わたしを信じて永遠のいのちを持っているからです。滅びることなど絶対にありません。このことを信じますか。」ヨハネの福音書 一一:２５-２６
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1 Coincidentally, the German version of my last name “Morgan” (Morgen) also comes from the word we have for “dawn” or “morning.” Does that mean I might be part Japanese?
2 An Ecclesiastical History to the Twentieth Year of the Reign of Constantine, 4th ed., trans. Christian F. Cruse (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1847).
3 See Venetia Newall’s “An Egg at Easter: A Folklore Study” or “Easter Eggs” in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 80, No. 315 (Jan.- Mar., 1967), pp. 3-32. Or, “Easter Eggs” Folklore Vol. 79, No. 4 (Winter, 1968), pp. 257-278.
4 Hans Haas, Geschichte des Christentums in Japan. Tokyo: Ostasiatische Gesellschaft, 1902, Vol. 1, p. 299.
5 The Border Sacrifice goes back, some say, 4,000 years to Emperor Shun of the Xia Dynasty, as recorded in the Shu Jing (Book of History) and oracle bone inscriptions.
6 See Xuzhou Han Stone Carvings by Wu Liuhua (Beijing, Nov. 2001)
7 According to the “Shinsenshoujiroku” (新撰姓氏録), written in the 8th year of the 14th emperor Chuai (仲哀), Koman (巧満). The question being when exactly this was. See Ken Joseph’s Lost Identity. Kobunsha Paperbacks, 2005. Ken has amble amounts of historical conjecture, so one would have to be careful in analyzing his information.
Also, "Religious sites, relics indicate Christ beat Buddha to Japan" by Rob Gilhooly. (July 24, 2001): http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fv20010724a2.html
"Christ on the Silk Road: The Evidences of Nestorian Christianity in Ancient China" by Glen L. Thompson. (Apr 2007, Vol. 20, Issue 3): http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=20-03-030-f
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