By Dr. Williams Aladekugbe
We are grateful to the Almighty God that He allowed us to witness another Easter season. We congratulate all of us for the joy of today and for the privilege granted us to be part of the celebration. Easter, also called Pascha or Resurrection Sunday is the commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of His burial following His crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary. Easter is the joyful end to the Lenten season of fasting and penitence.
There are several passages in the Bible that speak about bringing to life people who were already dead – I Kings 17: 17-24; 2 Kings 4: 18-25; Acts 9: 36-43. In all these passages, God showed that He still had interest in the affairs of men. The New Testament records that Jesus raised three people from the dead. This showed Jesus as the Master of death as did His prophecies that He would rise again after three days in the grave (Mark 8: 31).
However, the most significant of them all was the raising back to life of Lazarus after four days in the grave (John 11: 38-44). This helped thicken the plot to kill Jesus.
When Jesus made the claim, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believes in Me, though dead, yet shall he live …” (John 11: 25-26), many of His disciples did not understand it. Even now, many are still confounded by that event which changed the course of history. The disciples who had earlier lost hope became hopeful. The disappointment of the women turned to joy and Sunday became the day of victory.
The resurrection is real! By the vote of the people, Pilate crucified Jesus. He was put to death on what is now called Good Friday. Every one thought that to be the end. If it had been the end, then Jesus would only have been one more of the murdered prophets; there would have been no Christian Church. But the Cross was not the last word; it was the prelude to Easter.
The main points of Easter are:
Jesus was crucified, dead and buried.
He was raised from the dead on the third day (I Cor. 15: 4).
The evidence of His resurrection:
The stone was rolled away – Matt. 28: 2
The empty tomb – Luke 24: 3
He appeared to Mary and others – John 20: 11-18.
He ate with them – John 21: 4-13.
He commissioned them to preach the Gospel about Him – Matt. 28: 16-20.
What does the resurrection mean to you and me?
It means the vindication of righteousness: Jesus was innocent of all charges, He was crucified to silence Him, but God raised Him to life in order to be vindicated.
It signified the defeat of death – 1 Cor. 15: 55. The spirit of the grave was silenced; truth can be suppressed but cannot be killed. When you are persecuted because of truth, be sure, like Jesus, that you will triumph. All believers will be raised to life eternal by God – John 6: 39-40; 11: 25; 1 Cor. 15: 20-34.
The Lessons of Easter are:
Jesus is a life-charger.
The world is at the crossroad and it is only the risen Christ who can make it better and bring back its lost hope.
Today, many believe that Christ has no relevance in the world order. Those who rule the world hardly speak about the risen Christ. A former German Chancellor, Kenrad Adenaver said in The Daily Bread, “If Jesus Christ is alive, then there is hope for the world, if not, I do not see the slightest glimmer of hope in the horizon”. Then he added, “I believe Christ’s resurrection to be one of the best attested facts of history”.
When Socrates, the Greek Philosopher was dying, his friends asked, “shall we live again”? He could only say, “I hope so”. On the contrary, a night before Walter Raleigh was to be beheaded, he wrote in his Bible, “From this earth, this grave, this dust, my God shall raise me up”.
Those of us who believe in the power of resurrection, those of us who believe that the Lord made all things new at the resurrection of Christ, must first believe that we have the hope of eternity.
We must also believe that there is hope for the world He has made. Though this world is now ravaged by materialism, violence, corruption and faithlessness, though we are in the age of a revolutionary change, the finger of Christ is seen everywhere; our hope of redemption is not lost.
Take a look at our country Nigeria, where things appear to be disintegrating on a daily basis. Life is grossly uncertain; death comes so easily through the hands of assassins and kidnappers without remorse, every aspect of our polity appears to be upside down. Many people are groaning daily under the burden of fear, hunger, joblessness, insecurity, diseases and poverty, yet, Christ says through His resurrection that there is hope for those who believe in Him and that our country shall yet bounce back. How it will bounce back is known to God only.
That is why we must not nurture the kind of hope which Socrates had, the hope that is uncertain; rather, we need to have Walter Raleigh’s kind of Hope – “From this earth, this grave, the dust, my God shall raise me up”. We can say boldly with faith in Christ from the platform of the Church, that from this deplorable condition of our nation, the Lord shall raise us up.
Your joy at Easter is not that you are saved alone, but it is that Christ is the hope of the world. Your major assignment is now to go, tell the story, act the story, live with the story. Tell your neighbours, tell it within your family, tell it in your offices, tell it everywhere, that a Saviour has come, and He has saved the whole world.
This proclamation may cost you a lot of your time, it may cost you a lot of your talent, it may even cost you a lot of your treasure. It is an obligation to be done; you must never allow this opportunity to slip off your hands.
We must be happy that He lives, and because He lives, we have the hope of tomorrow for our country, for the world and our biggest hope is for eternity.
Because He Lives
Because He lives
I can face tomorrow
Because He lives
All fear is gone
Because I know, He holds the future
And life is worth a living, just
Because He lives.
God sent His Son
They call Him Jesus
He came to love
To heal and forgive
He lived and died
To buy my pardon
An empty grave is here
To prove my Jesus lives.
And then one day
I’ll cross the river
I’ll fight life’s final war
Life’s final war with pain
And then as death
Gives way to victory
I’ll see the lights of glory
And I’ll know my Jesus lives.
Aladekugbe is the Bishop, Ibadan North Anglican Diocese. He writes in from Ibadan
