Why Was Easter a War?
Daffodils, hyacinths and fragrant lilies. These lovely things usher in Easter. This is a time of new beginnings and boy do we need that now. Easter lifts us up but let us not miss the deep existential reality that occurred.
Easter represents a cosmic battle. The war over good and evil, darkness over light, eternity vs. death. Christ walked onto a battlefield during the holy week and came out on Easter. We read about Gethsemane and shudder. Jesus faced a torturous death and He knew it. Treated like a common thief, He walked handcuffed out of Gethsemane. But he wasn’t a thief. And he wasn’t just human. He was God. So why did He put up with this?
He did this because He knew something that we can’t wrap our minds around. He saw evil and knew that it strangled us. Evil deep inside each of us and around us. We see murder, torture, and women and children treated like animals. We struggle with our own disturbing thoughts and feelings every day.
To erase the effects of evil on us, God had to wage war. Easter depicts this war- the biggest fought in human history. And He won. But why then, we ask, does evil still exist? Because God won’t change our hearts without our cooperation. He isn’t a bully.
Evil creates an unjust world. But without God ushering us into heaven, justice can’t exist. Women and men who live tormented, children stuck in abuse and girls sex trafficked may live their entire lives this way and then die. If they died and the war of Easter was never won, they would not know heaven. They would lie in the ground. No justice. But because of the battle Christ won, they can look forward to an eternity of bliss. Heaven is their justice.