Before retiring last night, a video was shared with me of a little girl asking her father about Jesus, and the Easter bunny. And while the video had an element of cuteness to it, especially when she was pondering what Jesus’ favorite chocolate was, it reminded me of my own desire to understand the relationship between the celebration of Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like the girl in the video, my family wasn’t a very good source of information, so I ended up having to do my own research. Mind you, this was before the existence of what we now know as the internet, along with Wikipedia, or Google.
One question I had asked during this time was why do all the Christian churches that I was aware of at that time assemble for worship on Sunday? The answer was always the same: Because Jesus was raised from the dead on a Sunday. The fact is, according to the Bible, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day of Passover week. In the Bible, the third day of Passover is when the priest took a sheaf of grain into the temple, and waved it before God. This first fruit represented a pledge of the bountiful harvest to be gathered, and the waving indicated thanksgiving and praise to the Lord of the harvest as the one who is the source of life.
On resurrection morning (the word Sunday is not in the Bible), Jesus, along with those who were resurrected with him, were taken before the Father in heaven, and presented as the antitypical wave sheaf as a pledge of the general resurrection of the righteous in the final generation.
With that, the question now is, why do the Christian churches assemble on Sunday when the third day of Passover is on a different day of the week every year? Not only that, but one of the Ten Commandments says “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” According to the Bible, the Sabbath begins at sunset on Friday, and ends at sunset on Saturday. Why not assemble during that time? Some have said that the resurrection of Jesus changed the Sabbath to Sunday. The Bible doesn’t say that. Others say that the Sabbath is for the Jews. But according to the Bible, the Sabbath existed since the days of Eden, centuries before there was a Jewish identity.
Some suggest, or rather insist, that the observance of the Sabbath represents an attempt to save one’s self by their own works while the observance of Sunday represents being saved by God’s grace. These are the same people who want the Ten Commandments to be displayed in court rooms, and have them as the basis of American law. In other words, you’re damned by God if you keep the Sabbath, and damned by man if you don’t. Oy vey!
So why do those Sunday advocates, who love to talk about how they are saved by God’s grace, not live grace filled lives? Why do they continually need to ask God to forgive them for doing those things they know they ought not? It is because there is a difference between grace and forgiveness. According to the Bible, forgiveness is what we are given when we recognize, and acknowledge we have not been living in accordance with God’s law. Grace is the power we are then given to live in accordance with God’s law.
But the natural state of man desires to have no other law than his own, and this is the true origin of the celebration of Easter Sunday. In patriarchal times, before the industrial revolution, the acquisition of power and influence was directly proportional to the size of one’s family. Family sizes are increased through sexual activity (have you ever taken a walk in the woods, and stumble upon rabbits having sex?). Families are fed with food that relies on sunshine. In ancient cultures, the first day of the week was dedicated to the sun for this very reason. The egg was a symbol of fertility, the procreation of life, which brings more power, influence...money, greed, conquest.
As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, it became leavened with these pagan influences until they became the majority. At that point, the true and faithful were derided as wackos, and driven underground, if not killed off altogether. With that, the power of God was also driven out of the congregation, and replaced with the power of state. Once this union of “church” and state was complete, the influence of the natural man had free course to exalt himself above the law of God, and assert the change of the Sabbath to Sunday, in honor of himself.
Fortunately, none of this has taken God by surprise. Jesus warned that these things would happen, and He has done everything necessary to save his children from the consequences that will, and presently are coming upon this final generation for their clear, wide-open, inexcusable rebellion to his kingdom, and the law which governs it.
