If you were to ask Jesus today, he would likely be very unhappy with the modern day holiday that is used to celebrate the day of his resurrection. Most people who celebrate Easter have good intentions. Here are three reasons why Easter would likely not be a day of special importance to Jesus.
The day he was resurrected rarely falls on Sunday.
The holiday of Easter is used to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. If by some chance Easter Sunday falls on the exact day of Jesus resurrection, it is purely coincidence. The day of Jesus’ death on our modern day calendar would be a different day of the week from year to year. The date of Jesus’ resurrection can be easily calculated . Jesus died on the date of Jewish passover which corresponds to Nisan 14 on the Jewish calendar. He was resurrected a few days later. The months on the Jewish calendar are calculated differently than they are on today’s calendar. So the day that Nisan 14 corresponds to each year is different. For example in 2014, Nisan 14 corresponds to April 14th after sundown. In 2015, Nisan 14 will correspond to April 3rd. So if the day Jesus died corresponds to a different day of the week each year, the day he was resurrected will also. The day on the modern calendar that corresponds to the date Jesus died would not fall on a Sunday every year. Why might he not be pleased with this? It’s like saying, “We are going to celebrate your resurrection, but we are going to celebrate it on our day off work.”
Jesus commanded his disciples to celebrate his death, not his resurrection.
At Luke 22:19 , Jesus commanded his followers to commemorate his death when he said, “This do in remembrance of me.” This date was important to him because his death paid the price for the sins of imperfect humans, not his resurrection. His resurrection would have been a cause for rejoicing, but his death is what actually paid the price of the ransom sacrifice. There is no command in the scriptures from Jesus asking his followers to commemorate his resurrection. So if you are only going to celebrate one of them, he would likely prefer that you celebrate the one that he asked you to celebrate.
Easter has pagan ties.
Just do a search for “Is Easter pagan? ” on Google, and you will see that most scholars are in agreement that many of the customs tied to Easter are pagan. Most of the items associated with Easter such as eggs and bunny rabbits have their origin in pagan customs. Even buying a new outfit to wear for Easter Sunday has pagan roots.
