Easter in Jerusalem

I have never been to Jerusalem, but I am reasonably confident that somewhere in the city there must have been some faith communities celebrating the resurrection of Christ this past weekend as did the rest of the world. Pictured above is CNN’s coverage of a fire in a Jerusalem Mosque that was started by what was described as a Jewish extremist group demanding that the Passover ritual sacrifice be conducted in the mosque. The irony of the moment of course lies in the common heritage of the respective faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islamism. All three acknowledge Abraham as the chosen leader from God, the difference being Judaism and Christianity follow the heritage through Abraham’s son Isaac and Islamism through Abrahan’s son Ishmael. The incident above stemmed from the instance of one religious custom over another, both claiming the authority and will of God over the other.

There is nothing more dramatic than a setting sun as the one pictured above. It appears as if all the elements of the earth collaborate to capture the sun’s rays and harness its energy into submission so the dark of night can take control. It is a thing of beauty only because we are confident of the fact that the sun will rise again in a few hours in a different location and release its energy to effect all living things on earth. It seems that in the divine scheme of creation there was some intention to focus on that action of rising from the dark to the light. I believe God holds the process of transforming dark to light in high esteem because it is similar to the transformation of death to life, an act that He preordained for His Son. It is an act that defines the distinction of the faith for all Christians of the earth. That is, it is the resurrection of Christ that makes Christianity distinctive from all the faiths of the world. My point is not to devalue other faiths. My point is to identify the critical distinction between them, that being the resurrection of Christ. All leaders of all the faiths of the world die. As far as I know there is only one that claims a resurrection, that of Jesus Christ. But that was not the only purpose of the resurrection of Christ. That is, the resurrection has additional utility to those who believe as described by the apostle Paul when he says, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10). No, Paul did not have some weird infatuation about being crucified or being tortured. Paul wanted to “know” Christ, meaning to identify with Christ in such a deep and personal way that he would be “conformed to His death” meaning Paul wanted to emulate Christ’s ways and attitudes about Himself and His priorities of life. Paul describes those ways and attitudes of Christ earlier in the same book. “And being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). Christ was humble and kind. He esteemed others more than Himself. He was not centered on His own self-interests but the interests of others first. He took the form of a servant. (Philippians 2:3-7). What Paul understood was that the resurrection of Christ validated all that Christ said before His death and the manner of His death. Without the resurrection Christ would have been just another inspiring leader like all the others. But He was so much more than that. That is why Paul yearned to “know” Him through the experience of walking humbly before God and serving his fellow believers just as Christ did. So, Easter can be celebrated in many ways with many different rituals and customs. One can celebrate the Passover, pray in a mosque, have a hunt for eggs or eat chocolate rabbits. All that is good. But celebrating the resurrection of Christ and contemplating its implication to our lives, may just change our lives forever. It will for sure change the way we celebrate Easter.