In the contemporary U.S., Easter Sunday is only celebrated on one day of the year. That celebration brings families together for a joyous occasion. However, in the Christian tradition, Easter lasts much longer than just a single day.
The Catholic Church celebrates the season of Easter for 50 days (until Pentecost), as do the Orthodox churches. This tradition is ancient, being rooted in Scripture, and we can truly learn something from following it and continuing the commemoration of Easter beyond the solitary Sunday.
First, Easter can motivate us to move past the core sins that tend to control us. The Christian belief is that Jesus’ cross and resurrection beat the powers of sin, evil, and death. These realities still occur, but, through the gift of Jesus’ life within us, we can move past them and tame them.
Sin is an offense against God, others, and reason. It is when I choose myself over following God or respecting others.
If we are truly honest with ourselves, sin is powerful. The temptations to pride, envy, anger, lust, and countless other vices can appear insurmountable. The empty tomb ought to empower us to move past these by leaning on God for assistance.
The suffering and cross of Jesus revealed just how ugly sin is. His willingness to suffer for our sake gave man the power to move beyond sin by clinging to him. As Easter Sunday drifts further into the past, we must never tire of being reminded that we ought to be moving past sin as well.
Second, Easter brings an everlasting hope. So many Americans today are struggling. We are challenged by the weight of tensions across the globe, providing for our families, illness, loss, and much more. The challenges of daily life can be immense. Easter seeks to shout that every trial and tribulation is redeemable.
The empty tomb reminds us that there is no darkness that God cannot restore. Often in our lives, there is a cycle of suffering, challenge, and loss of hope. But the truth of Easter is that God always seeks to restore. This is the ultimate promise and truth of the Christian message. Light always beats darkness. Even when it seems like all is lost and there is no way a circumstance can be healed: God will be victorious. As Easter moves forward, we must remain rooted in this fact and remember it, even when our direct situation does not seem to be changing for the better.
Next, Easter is about joy. The resurrection of Jesus brought incalculable exultation. He was hailed during his ministry as the prophesied Messiah. Even though most of his best friends betrayed and deserted him, the crowds turned on him, and the soldiers killed him—Jesus defeated death. The appearances of Christ to his followers and the crowds following Easter Sunday brought such joy because it was his definitive way of proclaiming his divine identity.
We ought to rejoice and carry on as the beacons of hope to the world because our God loved us so much that he became one of us, suffered in our place and rose from the dead to assure us that no evil can conquer those who cling to him.
“Joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian,” G.K. Chesterton wrote in “Orthodoxy.” Nothing should bring us despair because Jesus beat death. The challenge in living this out is to be a people of joy in the midst of a broken world that is often distant from God. We must be joyful so that others will see Christ in us.
Finally, Easter can live on in us even beyond the day if we pray for our loved ones who have died with a deeper sense of intentionality and intensity. If the resurrection is true (which it is), then there is hope for every single person who has ever lived to live forever in Heaven with Christ. This is why so many visit the cemetery plots of their loved ones even after their death. There is a deep and instinctive knowledge in the human heart that death is not the end.
As Easter moves on, we can make the commitment to pray for our loved ones who have died and ask them to guide us on our earthly journey. Because we truly believe that if we live in the faith, hope, and love of God, we will be united with Christ and our loved ones when we die. Then, and only then, will we experience the Easter realities for ourselves—and live in them, not just on one day, but for all eternity.
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