What is Easter and why do Christians celebrate it?
Easter is the Christian celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on the third day. Christians mark it because it shows that His death on the cross was accepted by God and gives believers a sure hope of their own resurrection.
Easter is the day on which Christians celebrate that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The New Testament does not command a yearly festival, but everything the festival celebrates is at the center of the New Testament. In many languages its name comes from Passover: Pascha in Greek, Пасха in Russian, Pascua in Spanish.
The morning the tomb was empty
Luke tells what happened on the first day of the week (Luke 24:1–7). The women came to the tomb at dawn, found the stone rolled away and the body gone, and then two men in dazzling clothes spoke to them.
And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
Luke 24:5–7 · King James Version (1769)
John MacArthur notes that the women did not expect a resurrection: they came only to finish anointing a dead body. The New Geneva Study Bible points out that none of the Gospels describes how the resurrection itself happened. They all agree that the tomb was empty on the third day, that women were the first witnesses and that the disciples found it hard to believe. Matthew Henry adds that how Christ’s soul and body were reunited is a mystery, but the proofs that He truly rose are given to us and to our children.
The New Geneva Study Bible also notes that the Greek of Luke’s “rise again” can be read as “be raised,” which stresses that Jesus was raised by the Father.
Easter and the Passover
Easter is tied to Passover, and it is not by chance. On the night of the tenth plague, God told Israel to mark their doors with the blood of a lamb.
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
Exod 12:13 · King James Version (1769)
Matthew Henry sees in the Passover lamb a picture of Christ: the lamb had to be without blemish, its blood was sprinkled for the people’s safety, and Israel was saved by God’s mercy, not by its own righteousness. The New Geneva Study Bible adds that this is the only place in the Old Testament that explains the meaning of the blood in this rite. The name Passover recalls that the Lord “passed over” the houses marked by the blood.
Paul takes the picture further.
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
1 Cor 5:7 · King James Version (1769)
According to the New Geneva Study Bible, Paul means that the Passover sacrifice was a shadow waiting for its fulfillment in the death of Christ. John MacArthur explains that as unleavened bread recalled Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, so the church is freed from the power of sin and death through the spotless Lamb, and must live a clean life accordingly. On the cross Jesus was the Lamb, and on Easter morning God showed that this sacrifice was accepted.