The Importance of Easter

The Importance of Easter 

Easter is a holiday where some people celebrate Jesus, others celebrate a bunny and others choose not to celebrate at all. I grew up in church so when it came to Easter there was always an egg hunt but there was also lessons on what Easter really is. I knew it was when Jesus died on the cross but I didn’t fully understand what that meant until I got older and began to seek out the meaning myself. Starting about the middle of chapter 22 in Luke is when Jesus is arrested and the whole process of his death begins and by the end of chapter 23 you have read about how he died and rose again. 

Why is Easter so important? In the Old Testament in the Bible there was a high priest who was the supreme religious leader of the Israelites. The role of the high priest was hereditary and traced from Aaron, Moses’ brother, of the Levite tribe. The high priest had to be “whole” physically (without any physical defects) and holy in his conduct. 

Leviticus 21:5-8 ““The priests must not shave their heads or trim their beards or cut their bodies. They must be set apart as holy to their God and must never bring shame on the name of God. They must be holy, for they are the ones who present the special gifts to the Lord, gifts of food for their God. “Priests may not marry a woman defiled by prostitution, and they may not marry a woman who is divorced from her husband, for the priests are set apart as holy to their God. You must treat them as holy because they offer up food to your God. You must consider them holy because I, the Lord, am holy, and I make you holy.”

The most important duty of the high priest was to do the service on the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month of every year. Only he was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place behind the veil to stand before God. Having made a sacrifice for himself and for the people, he then brought the blood into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the mercy seat, God’s “throne”. He did this to make atonement for himself and the people for all their sins committed during the year just ended. It is this particular service that is compared to the ministry of Jesus as our High Priest.

Looking at this background on the tabernacle and the high priest, you can start to see why Jesus dying on the cross is so significant. Without Jesus dying we wouldn’t be able to have a personal relationship with Him. When He was going through the pain and torment he knew what needed to be done to save us. He loved us enough to die a gruesome death to give us a way to be with Him. Even all of the people in the world who despise him, mock him and even cringe at the thought of there even being a God. He did it for THEM. He did it for the people who cried “CRUCIFY HIM, CRUCIFY HIM!”because he knew there needed to be a change. There needed to be a way that ALL humanity could be saved. In the Old Testament there wasn’t a High Priest for everyone. Not all of humanity could be saved. Jesus needed to change that. He wants you to be saved. He wants you to have a relationship with Him. And he died for YOU. To show you how much he loves you and how much he cares for your soul. 

Can we honestly say that we would give our life for a stranger? That we would give our life for someone who hates us? For someone who wants us dead? No. Our flesh takes over. It’s hard for us to even have a civil conversation with people who disagree with us. But thankfully we don’t have to give our life to someone who hates us. We can give our life to someone who LOVES us. Who wants to be in our life. Who wants to help us in our time of need. That’s why Jesus died for us. That’s the reason why we celebrate Easter. To thank a God who manifested himself in flesh to come down to earth and give up his life for a selfish, ego driven world. All to hope we would accept Him into our lives and live eternally with Him. 

Jesus loves you. He died for your sins because he wants a relationship with you. He wants to help you change and come to him. Thank Him for his sacrifice for our life. He didn’t have to, but he did it for YOU.