Easter means different things to different people

Easter is one of the two major Christian holidays - the other being Christmas - yet Christians continue to disagree on its meaning and on whether its celebration is even necessary. Reverend Paulus Christian of the Full Gospel Church of God in the Oshoopala location of Oshakati is of the opinion that Easter is “a beautiful paradox”, a time of sadness and yet also a time of joy. “The realisation that Jesus had to die because of humanity’s sins is reason to feel really sad, but the fact that He rose from the dead and redeemed humanity gives tremendous happiness,” he said. He said Easter is a time for humanity to reflect on an extraordinary event that happened close to 2000 years ago when Jesus died and rose from the tomb, defeating death itself. “When I think about this singular event I am overwhelmed by humility,” he said. Christian said there are some people who see Easter as merely an opportunity to overindulge, buy new clothes, go on drinking sprees and engage in sinful and anti-social activities. “The correct way of commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus is to go to church to worship and to be taught and go back home to implement what you learned at the church,” he said. Reverend Joseph Avia of the Gloria Dei Lutheran parish in Ongwediva said Easter is about Jesus’ last week before He was crucified and His resurrection on the third day. “Easter ought to be celebrated in a serene and prayerful mood, in the spirit of sacrifice and charity. This is the time to grow spiritually by moving closer to God who sent His only-begotten Son to die for our sins,” he said. Although a very popular holiday, Easter is rejected by some denominations as being rooted in paganism and that its commemoration was not mandated by Christ. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, do not believe that the Easter holiday has anything to do with the death and resurrection of Christ. They maintain that it was unknown to the early Christians and only came into existence several hundred years after all the scriptures were finished. A leading member of the Roman Catholic parish at Ondangwa, Martin Mwateuvi, disagrees. He says those who reject the celebration of Easter as pagan do so mainly based on “accidents” and not on the essence of the holiday. “They look at non-Christian customs associated with Easter and conclude that, since those customs are non-Christian, Easter must be non-Christian. They overlook the essence of the holiday, namely the death and resurrection of Christ, which is the most important fact in salvation history. That Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead is a historic fact that should leave nobody indifferent,” he said.