Article April 13, 1981 Issue

The Easter message that counts

WILLIAM WELSH HOLLAND

Throughout the Christian world, the Easter season brings headlines. And what lies behind the news telling of Christians gathering to commemorate this event? One of the most profound events history has ever recorded. The message of Christ Jesus' resurrection still rings and reverberates in human consciousness.

Yet, there are distractions to this unparalleled occasion. Certain traditions surrounding—but unable to obscure—the Easter season have their roots in paganism. The very word "Easter" comes from Eostre, the Teutonic goddess of spring. The hare and the egg are supposed to have been her symbols because of their association with fertility.

The appendages of materialism may ask for the spotlight, but to the scientific Christian, the resurrection is what Easter is all about. It's this achievement of Jesus' that most conclusively overthrew mortality, sin, and disease—every miserable byproduct of the assumption that man is organized dust. Easter records a breakthrough whose ramifications the modern world has only begun to fathom. The day of the Master's resurrection was the day the death barrier was shattered. The indestructibility of true being was forever established and presented to humanity for their progressive demonstration.

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