Christians mark the Stations of the Cross in Auckland yesterday in procession to St Patrick's Cathedral. Photo / Dean Purcell
Christians enjoy chocolate as much as anybody. We enjoy the look on our kids' faces when they see what the Easter Bunny has brought. We certainly enjoy two extra days off. At the same time we understand that the events we celebrate on Easter weekend are central to our Christian faith and therefore central to our lives. The events about 2000 years ago concerning a man named Jesus are commemorated by millions of Christians the world over at Easter because these events change our perspective on pain, brokenness, grief, death, and life itself.
Good Friday, the first day of this weekend celebration, is often a time when Christians meet together and reflect on the death of Jesus. The mood of our church services may be quiet and perhaps sorrowful as we remember that Jesus, the man who taught and lived selfless love to others, was tortuously killed - crucified by Roman soldiers. We remember that on a Friday, just before sunset, his mangled body was placed in a tomb and sealed with a stone (the first day). We remember that his friends ran away in fear, afraid his fate might befall them. They had lost all belief.
On Easter Sunday, many Christians meet together again, and this time the mood is more festive as we greet each other with the refrain, "He is risen", and reply, "He is risen indeed!" For after a quiet, desolate wait on Saturday (the second day), the earliest followers of Jesus were confronted with the living, breathing, eating, Jesus set free from the sealed tomb and set free forever from the state of death. On Sunday (the third day) the fabric that had once bound his lifeless wounded body was laid folded inside the tomb, the guards who were to protect the tomb had departed in fear.
The Christian faith is, quite simply, based on a man who died and who came back to life. Our faith is based on the story of Easter: the death of Jesus on Friday and his return to life on Sunday.
This is the message, known as the Gospel - the good news - that has been passed down from those who originally saw Jesus in his revitalised body all those years ago, to Christians today. It is the message that was first publicly announced here in Aotearoa 200 years ago by a British missionary, Samuel Marsden. From the Bay of Islands the message was dispersed with many Maori embracing the God of Christianity as the consummation of Io, the creator.
Of course for many then, as is true for today, a faith based on the death and resurrection of a man seems implausible, with no more factual base than, say, a belief in the Easter Bunny. After all, the eye witnesses who saw Jesus alive on Sunday have all been dead themselves for 2000 years. All we are left with is their written accounts in the New Testament of the Bible, and the personal enrichment of those who now believe.
For those of us who do accept the age-old records of those who saw and spoke with the risen Jesus, our lives are enhanced by the dark shadows of Friday as well as the brightness of Sunday. These two days are game changers.
Good Friday allows us to know for certain that our creator understands us when we pray. No one is immune from the potential for heartache in this life. Some of us are stronger than others to cope with the rigours of ill-health, financial mishaps or relationship disappointments but all of us feel pain in some way. The night before his death Jesus begged his friends to keep him company, he said, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." Instead, his friends fell asleep. When we pray in our difficulties, we know absolutely that our creator has felt the deepest of human pain and sympathises with us, especially when others can't be there for us.
Good Friday speaks to us of our creator who gave all he had to rescue us from our own certain death. No matter what quality of life we each have, death is the silencer of all joys, sorrows and struggles. When Jesus died he absorbed all the frailties, weaknesses and madness that crush humankind and demand our finiteness. Instead of a certain end, our mortality can shed its blighted trajectory. His death allows us to be reset.
Good Friday captures the misery of Jesus's betrayal to the authorities by Judas his close friend, his subsequent flogging and ghastly execution. It means that we have a God who himself has experienced pain.
Easter Sunday shouts to Christians that the pain and limitations of our humanity will not always bind us. Just as Jesus rose again, he has promised that anyone who aligns their lives with him will likewise overcome death. The forces of evil that keep humankind from our full freedom and potential will have an end. Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying."
Easter Sunday provides hope we can live our life without being mired down by minor frustrations and worries. Having an end view puts perspective on the here and now and can buoy us up when we feel we are not living the selfless loving lives that Jesus taught us to live. Our limitations are not the end of the story.
If this story is true (as Christians believe), it means that our creator completely empathises with our sorrows and hurts. It means that the man who endured scourging and died covered with his blood understands us as he listens to us pray. It infuses life with purpose and hope. It reminds us of the enormity of God's sacrificial love for the people he created. It means we can approach the future with courage for he is risen ... he is risen indeed!
May Jesus Christ grant you and your family a refreshing Easter.
We warmly invite you to attend any of our services over the Easter weekend. Everybody is welcome and we would very much like to share this special time with you.
Church leaders
• Rev Dr Neville Bartle, National Superintendent, Church of the Nazarene
• Rt Rev Ross Bay, Anglican Bishop of Auckland
• Mr Glyn Carpenter, National Director, New Zealand Christian Network
• Pastor Paul de Jong, Senior Pastor, LIFE
• Pastor Jonathan Dove, Senior Pastor, Greenlane Christian Centre
• Rev Patrick Dunn, Catholic Bishop of Auckland
• Mr Peter Eccles, Auckland District Chairman, Congregational Union of New Zealand
• Mr David Goold, on behalf of the Open Brethren Churches
• Pastor Mike Griffiths, National Leader, Elim Churches of New Zealand
• Pastor Ken Harrison, Senior Pastor, Harvest Christian Church , Papakura AOGNZ
• Pastor Dr Brian Hughes, Senior Pastor, Calvary Chapel
• Major Stephen Jarvis, Divisional Commander, The Salvation Army
• Rev Kok Soon Lee, Auckland Chinese Churches Association
• Very Rev Jo Kelly-Moore, Dean, Auckland Cathedral of the Holy Trinity
• Pastor Joe Kummerow, Auckland Leader, Lutheran Church of New Zealand
• Rev Andrew Marshall, National Director, Alliance Churches of New Zealand
• Pastor Bruce Monk, National Leader, Acts Churches of New Zealand
• Pastor Sam Monk, Senior Pastor, Equippers Church
• Pastor Peter Mortlock, Senior Pastor, City Impact Church
• Rev Margaret Anne Low, Moderator, Northern Presbytery, Presbyterian Church.
• Pastor Lloyd Rankin, National Director, Vineyard Churches Aotearoa New Zealand
• Pastor Dean Rush, C3 Churches
• Pastor Jim Shaw, New Life Churches Apostolic team
• Bishop Brian Tamaki, Senior Minister, Destiny Churches International
• Pastor Allan Taylor, Northern Association, Baptist Churches of New Zealand
• Pastor Eddie Tupa'i, President, North New Zealand Conference, Seventh-day Adventist Church
• Rev Dr Richard Waugh, National Superintendent, Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand
• Rev Marilyn Welch, Auckland Manukau Northland Superintendent, Methodist Church of New Zealand
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