Easter, what a difference it made!
Easter is the greatest celebration of all church festivals. It commemorates the most important story of the Christian Gospel: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. That event has made a tremendous difference throughout the centuries and completely transformed the lives of many people.
The Resurrection of Christ also significantly impacted the lives of his disciples. After the crucifixion, the disciples were thoroughly beaten. Overpowering sadness had created in them weakness, cowardice, hopelessness and despair. They went into hiding, lest those who had done away with Christ should find them and do the same.
Then, on the first Easter, something happened! The disciples’ overpowering sadness gave way to overpowering joy, and that joy gave birth in them a powerful strength, courage, confidence and boldness. Within six weeks, the Gospel of Christ was preached fearlessly and effectively by men transformed from slinking cowards into valiant crusaders.
No illusion transformed the disciples from fearful, hiding refugees to courageous, outspoken witnesses. No mass hypnosis could have started the Christian Church, maintaining it to this day. The only thing that convinced the disciples was being in the presence of the same Jesus they had known before the crucifixion.
If the story of Jesus had ended on Friday—with His death on the cross and His burial in the tomb—it would have ended there for all times. St. Paul was right when he wrote, “If Christ was not raised from the dead, our preaching is in vain.” There would have been no preaching or witnessing at all. The disciples, convinced that the crucifixion had ended their dreams and hopes, had already begun to turn to other things. The change that occurred in them is totally inexplicable, apart from the reality of the Resurrection. Without it, there would have been no Christian movement, no New Testament, no celebration of the first day of the week and no transformed lives.
Easter also assured the survival of the Christian faith as a way of life for people of all succeeding generations. Without the Resurrection, Christianity would be a museum piece. Easter has made, and still makes, a tremendous difference.
Moreover, the Resurrection of Christ validated the truth that the ultimate purposes of God cannot be destroyed by evil forces. It asserted that evil men do not have the last word—that righteousness, though crucified, lives to speak the last word.
Easter has been very dear to the hearts of the Armenian people, who are living witnesses to the power of Christ’s Resurrection. From 1915 to 1923, 1.5 million Armenians were murdered by the Young Turk regime of the Ottoman Empire. Armenians worldwide honor the memory of the martyrs, who carried the cross and later witnessed the glorious Resurrection. Armed and fortified by the power of the Resurrection, the survivors of the Armenian Genocide experienced rebirth and renewal. Indeed, three years after the 1915 Genocide, the heroic Armenian people, by the grace of God, were able to create a free and independent state on their historic land, which laid the foundation for the present Republic of Armenia.
The Genocide did not paralyze the creative forces of the Armenian people, for the scattered remnants of the Armenian nation did achieve new life both in Armenia and in the Diaspora. Today, Armenians stand with their heads held high to face the future with hope, demanding justice and continuing the struggle for recognition and reparations.
The affirmation that Christ is risen from the dead is the center of Christian theology. There is no question about the tremendous difference it has made and still makes in peoples’ lives. The challenge for each of us is to live in the power of that assertion.
May the hope, grace and blessing of the Resurrection be with us—and with the world—today and forever.
Christ is risen from the dead. Blessed is the Resurrection of Christ.
Rev. Dr. Vahan Tootikian
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