Around two millennia ago, a cataclysmic event occurred, and mankind has never been the same. An ordinary human being, in almost every way like any other, who had been persecuted and murdered by an oppressive society somehow slipped the chains of death, defeated death, and rose again. By making the supreme sacrifice of submitting to torture and a grisly end, Jesus gave everything He had in exchange for a path to ultimate freedom and joy for the rest of humanity, which He loved more than Himself.
Some years back, my woke co-worker complained that it wasn’t right that Christmas was a federal holiday and so widely celebrated. My friend reasoned that Christmas was a religious holiday, and the government shouldn’t celebrate a faith. I explained that Christmas was in fact a secular holiday: it celebrated the birth of a great philosopher-rabbi, and that you could draw a straight line from Jesus’s teachings to the principles behind the creation of the United States. You didn’t need to believe that He was the son of God for this to be true. The true religious holiday is Easter, because that is when the divine miracle occurred — the finality of death shattered and the gates to life eternal flung wide. Love and mercy for all, forever, and all they have to do to win it is to accept it: to love the Lord and love themselves and their fellows as well.
Not a bad deal!
Related: Good Friday and Passover: Remembering Freedom
To all those who celebrate (either today or in a week), a blessed and joyous Easter.
Blessings, peace, and joy to all.
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