Easter and How it Got

That Way

Rev Rodney A Gray

 A different title for this study might be “Everything you always wanted to know
about Easter but were afraid to ask.” However, “everything” is too much to claim to
know. For another thing, most people are not afraid to ask. More often than not, they are
not interested. Some may wonder why eggs and rabbits suddenly appear in abundance as
Easter approaches. Others are curious about why Easter cannot manage to settle on the
same date every year. Christmas has done it, why not Easter? Then there are the
mandatory lilies, just as Christmas has its poinsettias. People may be curious about the
significance of these, not to mention the Easter baskets and bonnets. But commercialism
tends to suppress that curiosity, because Easter is big business. It may not bring people
out to the shopping malls to the extent that Christmas does, but purchases of cards,
flowers, candy, clothing, and gifts together make up a large component in the annual
ritual.
Christians are interested in Easter because they are Christians. But what is Christianity?
Many who consider themselves perfectly respectable Christians have no interest in
Christianity. That is to say, they are nominal Christians, Christians in name only. They are
not Christians because they have turned from their idols to serve the living and true God.
They serve their idols still, though they do so as “Christians.” As such, they are not
concerned one way or the other what the Bible teaches about Easter or anything else,
unless it will help them in the pursuit of their short-term goals. They do not regard the
Bible as the revelation of God, given by inspiration of God, infallible, inerrant, and thus
the authoritative regulator of their belief and behavior. Nominal Christians have never
repented toward God, never abandoned all self-trust, never forsaken the world, and never
believed in Jesus Christ with a life changing faith. But biblical Christianity traces its
origin and identity to biblical revelation. Biblical Christians are such because they have
come to believe what God has said in the Bible. Christians by this definition want to
examine and evaluate things in the light of the Bible, the word of God. The only relevant
question for them is, What has God said about it in his word? On the subject of Easter,
then, what does God’s word have to say?

How did it get the name?

Where did the name, “Easter,” actually come from? Many would be surprised, maybe
even disappointed, to learn that it did not come from the Bible. But in tracing the roots of
the Easter observance, the one fact that seems unmistakably clear is that the first
Christians did not know anything about it. This can only be accounted for by the fact that
neither Christ nor the apostles ever taught anyone that such an observance ought to be
established in the churches. Nevertheless, multitudes have been led to believe otherwise
because of a translation blunder of Acts 12:4 in the King James Version of the Bible.
Referring to King Herod having arrested Peter, the KJV reads,

“And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four
quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the
people.”
This is a mistaken translation of the word that in every other place it is used is translated
“Passover.” It is used 29 times in the New Testament, and every time without exception it
means “Passover.” In Hebrews 11:28 we are reminded that by faith Moses kept the very
first Passover. When the New Testament mentions the Passover, it must be understood in
the light of the Old Testament institution. The first Passover commemorated Israel’s
deliverance out of Egypt (Exodus 12:1-20, 29,30; Leviticus 23:4-8). Central to it was the
sacrifice of a lamb, carefully selected, prepared, and consumed. Its blood shed and
applied to their houses marked the difference between judgment and redemption when
the destroying angel passed over. Many uses of the word occur in the gospel accounts of
the final Passover Jesus kept with his disciples (Matthew 26:2,17,18,19). In this case,
Herod intended to hold Peter over for public trial until after the Passover.
The Passover had nothing directly to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It rather
pointed to his death as the sacrificial Lamb of God. The Lord Jesus gathered his disciples
together for their last Passover “on the night he was betrayed” (I Corinthians 11:23). The
Passover marked the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasted seven
days, and during which the Jews were to allow no leaven in their dwellings. The verb
form of the word for Passover is also used numerous times in the New Testament. It
always means, “to suffer.” For example,

“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things…” (Matthew 16:21).

Pilate’s wife warned him, “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have
suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him” (Matthew 27:19).

Jesus said to his disciples, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I
suffer” (Luke 22:15).

“After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs
that he was alive” (Acts 1:3).

“If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices
with it” (I Corinthians 12:26).

“For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to
suffer for him” (Philippians 1:29).

The epistle of First Peter, a great expose on the suffering of Christ and his people, utilizes
this word no less than twelve times. Of the total number of appearances of the word in the
New Testament, the only instance where the KJV did not translate it “suffer” is in Acts
1:3, where it reads, “after his passion.” This has given rise to the practice of referring to
Christ’s “passion” and of using the word “passion” to refer to the week of Christ’s death
and resurrection as “Passion Week.” The gospel proclaims the sufferings and atoning
death of Christ as the only way of reconciliation with God. But the gospel also summons
those who believe in Christ for salvation to expect a life of suffering for his sake. There is
no particular emphasis in this on the resurrection of Christ.

Why does the date change?

Easter observers may wonder why Easter Sunday does not fall on the same Sunday of the
same month every year, or on the same day of the year as Christmas does on December
25. The answer to this question involves a complicated process of debate and discussion
that transpired over many centuries. We have seen that Christ’s final sufferings and death,
often called his “passion,” coincided with the Jewish Passover. The word “pascha” came
to refer to Christ’s sufferings and death because the verb form of the word means “to
suffer.” Once people became used to the idea that the “passion” of Christ should be
observed annually, controversy soon arose over exactly when the observance should take
place. Passover fell on the 14th Nisan in the Jewish lunar calendar. The lunar year was 354
days, 8 hours, and 46 minutes. But in the interests of breaking free of Judaism,
Christianity began to observe the Roman solar calendar. The Roman solar year was 365
days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, based on the reformed calendar of Julius
Caesar (45 BC). It was eventually learned that the Julian Calendar year was six hours too
long so that by 1582 Pope Gregory XIII decreed that ten years be dropped to reconcile
the discrepancy. The Gregorian Calendar, named after him, is in general use today.

The problem was that these two systems had to be somehow reconciled, resulting in
many disputes over an extended period of time. In areas where Judaism was still
influential enough, Christians began to practice an annual observance on the 14 th day of
Nisan, regardless of the day of the week. Those who continued to hold to this practice
eventually became known as Quartodecimans, from the Latin for “14 th.” They wanted to
keep it on the 14th Nisan regardless of the day of the week in keeping with the Jewish
Passover. In other areas Christians tended to observe an annual “passion” day on the first
day of the week, regardless of the date. The earliest written evidence of any discussion
about an annual “Easter” observance comes from around 154 AD between Polycarp,
bishop of Smyrna, and Anticetus, bishop of Rome. It is recorded in Eusebius’
Ecclesiastical History, completed around 325 AD. Polycarp, representing the interests
and practice of the churches of Asia Minor, advocated the Passover date and Anticetus the
Roman observance of the first day of the week.

The Council of Nicea (325 AD) tried to get all the churches to observe the same Sunday
every year. It declared that the resurrection should be celebrated on the first Sunday after
the first full moon after the vernal equinox, or the first day of spring. This practice
eventually became generally accepted and explains the variation in Easter dates between
March 22 and April 25.

What is the connection with the resurrection of Christ?

In the earliest days of the gospel, the first day of the week immediately became significant
because of the resurrection of Christ.
“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary went to look at the tomb” (Matthew 28:1).

It was on the first day of the week that they came together to break bread in Troas (Acts
20:7). Paul instructed the Corinthian church,

“On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in
keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be
made” (I Corinthians 16:2).

The first day of every week was resurrection day. It became forever linked with the
resurrection of Christ. Christians recognized that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead to
announce to the world that he had secured eternal life for those whom the Father had
given to him (John 17:2), and that he had accomplished everything God the Father had
given him to do (John 17:4). The resurrection vindicated the person of Christ and
proclaimed his finished work. It demonstrated that he alone had approval and
authorization from God to undertake the work of man’s salvation.

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men
by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

This is why the apostles made so much of the resurrection of Christ in their preaching.
“With great power” they “continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (Acts
4:33). In Athens Paul preached “Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18). It was the
message Peter preached on Pentecost:

“But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was
impossible for death to keep its hold on him….. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we
are all witnesses of the fact” (Acts 2:24,32).

When Paul commenced his gospel epistle to the church in Rome he explained that it was
the gospel of God, the gospel promised, and the gospel of the Son of God,

“who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his
resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:4).

The same gospel was foundational to his ministry to the church in Corinth:

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3,4).

By the time John wrote the Book of Revelation he could refer to the Lord’s Day and
assume that believers would not mistake his meaning. It was on the Lord’s Day that the
ascended Lord appeared to John with a message for the churches.

“On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,
which said: ‘Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus,
Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea’” (Revelation 1:10,11).

If every Lord’s Day was associated with the resurrection of Christ, it is not surprising that
the believers saw no need of any additional means of commemorating it. There is no
evidence that the earliest Christians practiced an annual resurrection observance of any
kind. Some have attempted to find such an observance in I Corinthians 5:7,8:

“Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast – as you really are.
For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not
with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the
bread of sincerity and truth.”
Because of the reference to “keeping the Festival or Feast” it is argued that something
akin to an Easter celebration must be understood. But even a casual glance at the context
shows that what the apostle Paul was dealing with was not even remotely related to
anything of the kind. His concern was with an immoral relationship that was being
condoned by the church. “A man has his father’s wife” (I Corinthians 5:1). This was the
leaven or yeast that was poised to permeate “the whole batch of dough,” meaning the
whole church body. Paul’s command was to get rid of the leaven by expelling the
member in question. That Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us means that we
should have already gotten rid of the leaven. In the original Passover, all leaven or yeast
had to be removed from the house (Exodus 12:15). We noted above that Passover began
the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So Paul was in effect asking, Why is there leaven in the
house when Christ our Passover Lamb has already been sacrificed? “Keeping the
Festival” is therefore another way of “living the Christian life.” It means the same thing,
because the whole point is that in Christ old things have passed away and all things have
become new (II Corinthians 5:17). Paul was not exhorting anyone to “celebrate Easter.”
He was exhorting the believer’s church in Corinth to conduct itself as a group of people
who possessed new life in Christ.

It is true that after the first century, when the apostles had all died, ideas and practices
began to creep in that would not have had apostolic approval. As we noted above,
Christian leaders began to talk about the “passion” of Christ and whether there ought to
be some kind of an annual observance of it. But there is no clear evidence from the first
three centuries that such annual observances had specific reference to Christ’s
resurrection. In some cases the resurrection was included, but not in all cases, because the
“passion” had to do with his sufferings and death.

What are some problems for Christians?

Christians are concerned about the proper observance of Easter because many customs
have crept in that are foreign to Scripture and alien to the gospel of Christ (Colossians
2:16). For those who follow a liturgical calendar, everything else in the religious year is
determined by the date upon which Easter falls. Thus Lent is a period of forty days
beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending with the Saturday before Easter. Sundays are
not counted in the forty days. Ash Wednesday takes its name from the custom of applying
a spot of ashes on the forehead as a sign of penitence. Mardi Gras is the French name for
Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. On this day people are supposed to
attend confession with a priest in order to begin fasting for Lent in the proper spirit. But
the modern practice of celebration for which Mardi Gras is notorious in such places as
New Orleans and major South American cities demonstrates that repentance for sin is the
last thing on the minds of those who participate. Mardi Gras has its roots in similar types
of celebrations that may be traced all the way back to the Middle Ages. Passion or Holy
Week is the final week leading up to Easter Sunday. The Thursday of this week is called
Maundy Thursday. It is supposed to commemorate the Last Supper, and in the Roman
Catholic mass this involves the mistaken claim that the bread and wine are changed into
the literal body and blood of Christ. Good Friday is observed in connection with the
crucifixion and death of Christ, and Saturday, called Holy Saturday, is a day of quiet
preparation for the day of resurrection. Many other superstitious practices have come in
to a greater or lesser extent, including lighting and extinguishing candles, observing the
so-called stations of the cross, draping the cross, adoring the crucifix, processionals,
vigils, consecration of anointing oil, holy water, and candles, and the like. The
Reformation abolished many of these practices, because as far as the Protestant churches
were concerned they were nothing more than the traditions of men that hindered people
from understanding the simplicity of the gospel.

As with the observance of Christmas, many practices have evolved that are purely pagan
at worst and distractions from the gospel at best. One of these, as we have suggested, is
the practice of using the name, Easter, which likely comes from Eastre or Eostre, an
Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. The introduction of so-called “Easter eggs” is another
case in point. Painting them is supposed to represent the joyful renewal of spring. Easter
would not be complete without an array of ducklings and chicks. After all, which came
first, the chicken or the egg? Add to these the “Easter bunny” and the proliferation of
rabbits that make their annual appearance. All of these elements are rooted in pagan
fertility rites that are as old as Ishtar of the Babylonians, Ashtoreth of the Canaanites,
Aphrodite of the Greeks, Venus of the Romans, their respective male counterparts and
countless other false deities. Fertility religions involved the worshippers in practices that
were intended to induce the deities to grant fertility, renewal, and life by noticing what
the worshippers were doing. It does not need to be pointed out that God, in no uncertain
terms, warned his people against imitating or participating in such idolatrous practices.
The “Easter bunny” may be harmless if kept in his place, but Christians ought not to
encourage the idea that such things have anything at all to do with the gospel.

What are some principles to apply?

All things considered, there seems to be nothing objectionable about having a special
emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus Christ one Sunday a year. What is objectionable is
to do so as if it were mandated by the New Testament, which it is not. And of course it is
objectionable to laden it with all kinds of superstitious and sentimental practices that are
not in keeping with the gospel. Some customs and traditions are harmless if that is all
they are – customs and traditions. But if our faith and devotion to Christ somehow
depend on them, we know they have become something more. If we think that doing
certain things and doing them in the right order and in the right way satisfies the
requirements of the observance, we are in serious spiritual trouble. Ritual has distracted
us from the truth as it is in Jesus. So what are some principles to keep in mind that will
keep us out of trouble?

First, don’t emphasize symbolism over substance. The substance of the gospel is outlined
in the facts of his atoning death for our sins, his burial, and his resurrection, all in
fulfillment of the Scriptures (I Corinthians 15:1-8). These are the facts we must believe in
order to be saved. The facts do not save us, but the Person about whom these facts are
true does save us. An over emphasis on symbolism tends to allow people to feel that they
have done something meaningful when they have never believed the facts of the gospel.
Second, don’t confuse pagan custom with gospel reality. It is better to keep things
separate that are separate. As with Christmas, multitudes of people join in the celebration
of Easter without a renewed heart or any personal commitment to Jesus Christ. We
readily say with the apostle Paul, “We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and
that there is no God but one” (I Corinthians 8:4). But at the same time we should exercise
discernment about those things that have their origin and meaning in creature worship
rather than in the worship of the true God.

Third, don’t substitute observance for a change of life. Jesus said, “You must be born
again” (John 3:6). There is no substitute for regeneration or the new birth. Observance of
rituals and liturgies never reconciled anyone to God. Yet, how many people still imagine
that attending a place of worship on Christmas or Easter Sunday will entitle them to
God’s approval? The same principle applies here that applies to baptism, communion,
church membership, prayer, or anything else. There is no grace conveyed in the mere
observance of it. The gospel and biblical Christianity are characterized by simplicity. This
is not the same as saying they are “simple” or “simplistic.” The simplicity of the gospel is
that it proclaims the one and only solution to man’s most fundamental problem.
Confusion about the gospel is everlastingly fatal. Multiple layers of rituals and
observances tend to conceal rather than reveal the simplicity of the gospel.

Easter, 1997
Revised for Easter, 2006.