Easter By: Brett Briggeman

It is now the time of year when the Easter holiday is right around the corner.

For Christians, we hold this weekend in high esteem as the most important week for our faith apart from the birth of Christ. We celebrate Good Friday, remembering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for the sins of the world. We sit and rest in the silence of Holy Saturday, wrestling with the same thoughts and fears of the disciples, sympathizing with their grief. And then we rejoice on Resurrection Sunday, celebrating the fact that Christ did not stay dead. Let us then, as we look ahead to Easter, be reminded of why we celebrate and meditate concerning the sacrifice of Jesus. 

The story begins leading into the celebration of the Jewish Passover, remembering their enslavement in Egypt and how God had freed them from bondage. Passover is one of the only holidays where many of the Jews, whether by conversion or blood, would make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Jesus and His disciples were part of this group. 

As Jesus enters Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, the people begin to shout praises and are excited at His entry into the city. Matthew 21:9 says, “And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’” (English Standard Version (ESV)).  We will later see the same people who shouted “Hosanna” shout and advocate for the crucifixion of Christ. 

As the story progresses, the gospels tell us that Jesus and His disciples end up spending Passover in someone else's house, in their “upper room”. It is here that Jesus washes His disciples' feet, institutes the practice of communion/ eucharist and famously proclaims that one of His disciples will betray Him to the religious leaders of the day, known as the Pharisees and Sadducees, who will then hand Him over to the Romans to be executed (Matt. 26, Mark 14, John 13, and Luke 22). 

Jesus and His disciples leave the house and go to the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prays, urges His disciples to pray and is inevitably betrayed by Judas Iscariot and arrested by the religious leaders. They take Jesus, question Him on His divinity, trying to find any charge that they can bring against Him. Eventually, Jesus claims equality with God, they cry out that He has blasphemed God and begin to spit on Him and strike Him with their hands (Luke 22:66-71). They then bring Him before Pontius Pilate, who sends Him to Herod, who subsequently sends Jesus back to Pilate, who says that he desires to punish and then release Jesus for He has committed no crime. 

However, we see here that the people instead demand the release of Barabbas, in accordance with the customs of the day, where one prisoner would be released and the other would be crucified. Pilate, fearing the people, releases Barabbas, washes his hands of Jesus’ blood, stating that it shall fall upon the heads of the Jewish people. 

The gospels then tell us that Jesus was taken and flogged, whipped and beaten, essentially and effectively brutalized and torn to shreds because of the torture He endured. They then took Him, placed a crown of thorns upon His head and beat it into his skull (Matt. 27). Only after the physical torture did they take Him outside of the city and crucify Him, nailing Him to a cross. 

After hanging and suffocating for hours, Jesus gives up His spirit and dies. The Romans would pierce His side with a spear to make sure, with what appeared to be water flowing out from His side. Jesus was then taken off the cross by His followers and buried in a borrowed tomb, where He would lie for three days, until Resurrection Sunday, when He triumphantly was raised from the dead, having defeated sin and death. 

The story of the crucifixion of Christ is difficult and painful to read, even knowing the ending. Dealing with the fact that He went through all of these things for us should remind us that we ought to live a certain way. Remember this Easter that you were bought with a price, not so that you could go on sinning but so that you could follow Christ to the best of your ability and honor Him with your life. Mourn your sin and the effects it had, because our sin held Jesus to the cross, not just the metal nails that pierced His wrists. Repent for your sins and rejoice that they are nailed to the cross with Christ. You are no longer a slave to sin, but have been freed by His love. 

From myself and everyone else here at the Brand: Jesus loves you. Happy Easter.