We just came through Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Silent Saturday (my term), Resurrection Sunday. In every way, Easter celebrates the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I realize that there are many, many people who are not followers of Christ. But I don’t understand it.

I mean, think about it. Either Jesus did or did not rise from the dead. If he didn’t, then 2000 years of Christianity has been a hoax, a farce. The Church, from Saint Peter all the way to the present, has been pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. This kind of universal deception would put the stories of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy to shame. If he didn’t rise from the dead, then why would the first disciples die for something they knew was not true? The gospel of Matthew tells us that the Jewish leaders paid the guards at the tomb to lie and say that the disciples came and stole the body of Jesus. So, the Jewish leaders knew the body of Jesus wasn’t there, and the guards knew the body of Jesus wasn’t there. A huge stone was moved, and the first people to enter that empty tomb were women. How would they have been able to move such a stone? And then, the Bible says that this resurrected Jesus appeared to over 500 people after he rose from the dead. Every Biblical account and every historical account attest to the fact that Jesus’ tomb was empty on that first Easter morning.

Now, on the other hand, if Jesus did, in fact, rise from the dead, then everything changes. Can you imagine what would happen today if someone rose from the dead, never to die again? It would make the headlines immediately. “Grave site opened, casket empty . . . film at eleven.” If someone is certified dead, and then becomes alive again, and then doesn’t die but ascends into heaven, well . . . you have to do something with that. That is an event that can’t be ignored.

But the non-Christian world tries its best to do just that. You can see this when you compare Easter to Christmas. The Christmas season extends for a month and includes parties and decorations and celebration. Easter just kind of sneaks up on you. In fact, the date for Easter changes every year, and it is usually combined with Spring Break and a trip to the beach. Why is it that the world makes a big deal over Christmas but practically ignores Easter? It’s because a baby in a manger is sweet, but a man dying on a cross is not. Animals in a stable and a bright star from the east make for a great bedtime story, but a crown of thorns might give us nightmares. Wise men and shepherds and “no room in the inn” have a magical quality about them, but nails in his hands and a sword in his side and “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” is full of harsh realities. You see, Christmas is safe, but Easter is dangerous. A baby in a manger is sweet and gentle, but the Son of God dying on a cross is too indicting, his resurrection too powerful. You can control a baby in a manger, but anybody that can rise from the dead is too close for comfort, too intrusive. A baby in a manger doesn’t require anything of you. But you can’t ignore someone who has risen from the dead.

You can’t simply say that Jesus was a great moral teacher. A teacher would neither be great nor moral if he said that things that Jesus did, but those things were not true. Jesus was either a liar or a lunatic. But if he was neither a liar nor a lunatic, then he was, in fact, the Son of God, God in the flesh, who actually did die and then rise from the dead, never to die again. C.S. Lewis was right. “You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”