If you are Christian, or if you are of a different faith, or whether you have no faith at all, I invite you to think with me about the meaning of Easter. Why does this religious holiday occupy such prominence on the secular calendar that we all live and order our lives by, regardless of what we believe? And why is it not a fixed date on the calendar?
The Great Memorial Acclimation summarizes the Easter event: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” The acclimation is at the heart of the greatest story ever told. Christians are Easter people. Easter is at the heart of Christianity; we are Christians not because of anything we did, but because we believe that Jesus Christ lived, died, was resurrected from the dead and will come again.
In the prologue to John’s gospel, the evangelist writes: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. …. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1–14).
John writes later, “Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. Pilate said to them, ‘Here is your King!’ They cried out, ‘Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!’ Pilate asked them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but the emperor.’ Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him” (John 18:1-19:42).
And to summarize (John 20:1-18), which says, it was early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and said to Peter, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” For as yet, they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. These passages, according to John, sum up both the Nativity, death and the Resurrection of the central figure of the Christian faith.
If you have followed my columns over the past months, you probably have figured out that I like to cite historical facts where there is collaborating evidence to connect the Biblical text of the Old and New Testaments to our lives today.
Easter is the principal and defining feast of the Christian church, which celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his Crucifixion. The earliest recorded observance of an Easter celebration comes from the second century, though the first commemoration of the Resurrection probably happened much earlier.
Jesus is the central figure of Christianity, the world’s largest religion. Most Christians believe Jesus Christ to be the incarnation of God the Son and the Messiah, the Christ that is prophesied in the Old Testament. He is regarded by most Christians as the Incarnation of God.
Christ is not Jesus’s last name, but it identifies Him as the Messiah. Christ is the Greek translation of Messiah; the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises that God saves His people. The proper name Jesus was Greek for the Hebrew name Joshua, “he who saves”. The Greek name, Christos, was translated from the Hebrew meshiach, messiah. “Messiah” meant “anointed one.” “Jesus the Christ” became shortened over time to Jesus Christ, beginning with the letters of Paul in the 50s and 60s of the 1st century CE.
This fulfillment and salvation happened in history in real time and in a real place, first century AD in Israel, through a flesh-and-blood person named Jesus. If historical records authenticates Scripture or vice versa, why then is there different dates when Christians celebrate Easter? So, when exactly is Easter?
In 1053 CE, Christian churches in the Eastern and Western Empires split over doctrinal differences. The Eastern churches, referred to as Orthodox, were headed by the Byzantine emperor Constantine, until the Muslim conquest in 1453 CE under the Ottoman Turks.
During the period of colonial expansion, Christian missionaries took their teachings to communities in China, Japan, Africa, and the Americas. Today, Christianity is one of the largest of the world’s religions. While living in a secular world, our calendar overwhelmingly highlights, as holidays, events from the life of Jesus.
We learn from Scripture that Jesus died on a Friday, but we are not told the date in any of the gospels or in any historical sources. Therefore, you may rightfully ask the question, if the crucifixion and resurrection are historical facts and the defining events of Easter, and I believe they are, why then is the death and resurrection celebrated on different dates and not the same date each year. The evidence is too incomplete to allow for precise dating.
Likewise, the date on which the Resurrection of Jesus is observed, triggered a major controversy in early Christianity in which an Eastern and a Western position could be agreed. Ultimately it comes down to pure faith. As Jesus said to the sisters of Lazarus, concerning the raising of their brother from the dead, “do you believe in the resurrection?” I, like them, can say yes, I believe.
The dispute, known as the Paschal controversies, was not definitively resolved until the eighth century. In Asia Minor, Christians observed the day of the Crucifixion on the same day that Jews celebrated the Passover, that is, on the 14th day of the first full moon of spring. The Resurrection then, was observed two days later, regardless of the day of the week.
In the West however, the Resurrection of Jesus was celebrated on the first day of the week, Sunday, when Jesus had risen from the dead. Thus, Easter was always celebrated on the first Sunday after the 14th day of the month. Gradually, the churches opted for the Sunday celebration. The Council of Nicaea, which met in 325 to settle other questions around the divinity of Jesus, decreed that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox on March 21. Easter, therefore, can fall on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. This is our current practice, and this year Easter comes early, on March 31.
Finally, our Eastern Orthodox Christian sisters and brothers use a slightly different calculation, to locate the date of Easter, based on the Julian rather than the Gregorian calendar. The Orthodox Easter celebration usually occurs later than Easter celebrated by Christians in the West. Moreover, the Orthodox tradition prohibits Easter from being celebrated before or at the same time as Passover.
Easter has accumulated a great many traditions, some of which have little to do with the Christian celebration of the Resurrection, but are derived from folk customs. All Christian traditions have their own special liturgical emphases for Easter. The Easter sunrise service, for example, is a distinctive Protestant observance in North America.
The final statement of the Great Memorial Acclimation, “Christ will come again,” is the great hope of the Christian faith. By the fourth century, the Easter vigil was established on the night before Easter Sunday. The Great Vigil was characterized by a spirit of joyful anticipation of the Resurrection, because of the belief that Jesus’ Second Coming would occur on Easter.
With all these differences in how we celebrate this central act of our faith, it all comes down to the fact that we all believe that “Christ died, Christ was raised and Christ will come again!” This I believe we can all agree on, regardless of the day, date or how we choose to memorialize it. Happy Easter!
Rev. Bill Alford is a retired priest who served St. Alban’s Episcopal Church for the last 30 years and who has been priest-in-charge of the Church of the Atonement in Hephzibah for the last three years. Originally from Albany, Ga., Rev. Alford is a Navy Veteran who sings with and who is on the Board of Directors for the Augusta Choral Society.
