Easter Through the Years

Writings from The Salvation Army

War Cry Magazine

Easter is for Believers 

Commissioner Bramwell Trip

Written in 1973

Does it sound restrictive to say that Easter is for believers?  Does it smack of “whites only,” or “Gentiles only” or “men only?”  I’d much rather say Easter is for everyone,, but the youth is, it isn’t.  Whether we’re talking of Easter as the resurrection of Jesus Christ or of Easter as a personal experience of spiritual and physical resurrection. Easter is only for believers.

This was so on the first Easter. It was just another Sunday for the religious leaders who deliberately shut their minds to the possibility of an Easter (Matt. 28: 11-15).  The reports of Jesus’ resurrection were not even to be investigated or explored. These were men who honored God in many ways, but they were unwilling to entertain the thought that He might be breaking in on the world with new truth and new hope and new life through Jesus Christ.  Easter was and is only for believers, and the religious leaders were not believers.

Believing came late to some others that first Easter. Old forms of thought resist new ideas. The uncommon and strange can produce bewilderment and skepticism more easily than wonder and acceptance. The resurrected Christ was a delayed reality for Thomas because he doubted (John 20: 24-29).  The Emmaus duo didn’t share Easter joy when they first met the Risen Christ because they were “slow of heart to believer” (Luke 24:25). Easter is for believers.

Go back to an event that happened before the resurrection. Jesus had been asked to come to Bethany to help Lazarus, who was sick. But Jesus delayed His travel, and by the time He reached Bethany to help Lazarus, he was sick. But Jesus delayed His travel, and by the time He reached Bethany, Lazarus was dead. Martha, one of the grieving sisters, went out to meet Jesus and mildly chided Him for not arriving while Lazarus still lived.  Some conversation ensured and then Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11: 25, 26).

Notice how Jesus stressed belief. The resurrection experience is for believers.  We are not asked to attempt to understand it, to penetrate its mysteries, fathom its depths. Jesus simply asks: “Do you believe?”

And how we need to believe? We live in a terrifying world. So much in our time is materialized, mechanized and militarized. Individual and corporate life is threatened, and we see powerless to do anything effectual about it. But there is a way; the way of faith. Those who believe in Jesus Christ can see an Easter dawn tinting the black darkness. Faith works miracles in dismal times and dreadful place.

The Apostle Paul sent the Philippian Christians a greeting from the “saints of Caesar’s household.” There, in surroundings of evil and cruelty and danger, were people who, because they were believers, were “more than conquerors” through the Christ who loved them. When we believe, Jesus becomes our light, our strength, our hope, and fears disappear like a light mist touched by the rising sun.

Easter is for believers, and you ought to believe it. For to believe in Easter is to believe in a universe of open doors. If we reject Easter we accept the idea that life terminates in a blink alley. Rejecting Easter, living is robbed of zest. If life ends in nothingness, why struggle? But if life has permanent value, if Easter is part of our faith, we have courage for the shadowed valleys that are on everyone’s route. We can have light in dark places. Believe in Christ’s resurrection and yours, and life won’t end in a whimper; it will continue in wonder. The mood for believers is not lamentation, it is celebration!

And the time to believe is now. There’s a verse in the Epistle to the Hebrews where it is said of Moses that “he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible” (11:27).  When did Moses do that? While he was trying to lead the Israelites from Egyptian slavery to Canaan’s freedom, he lived in this visible world and saw all the problem situations and problem people which made up his day-to-day experiences. But, says the writer, Moses’ strength and resources came from the unseen.  “He endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.”

That takes Easter-type faith. We’re not talking about credulity or superstition or self-delusion. You and I deal with the unseen every day. Hope, powers of the mind which make life beautiful and meaningful are unseen.  So you see that not only the quality of endurance, but the qualities of imagination, perception and aspiration are hidden from our eyes.  All that is great in human living begins with the invisible. You ought to believe it. Have faith in God!

Easter is for believers, and you ought to act as though you believed it.  This world needs many things, but more than anything else it needs believers in the Lord of life who live their faith.

We left our text some time ago. Let’s get back to it. “Believest thou this?”  What? That resurrection occurs? No! “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.”  You see, this belief we’ve been discussing is in a Person, not in a proposition. The key is Jesus Christ. It is not resurrection as a process but Jesus as a Person that we are called to believe in.  It is the personal encounter with Him that matters. And when I really meet Him, I exclaim with another doubter, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

This world needs more people to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and to live in trust and obedience toward Him, in honesty toward themselves and in love toward others. This is true Easter belief.  If you trust Jesus Christ, there are no limits to what God will do in you and for you and with you.

Are you a believer?  You can be. You have only to go back to that first Easter to realize that doubters can become believers. The woman at the tomb and the disciples huddled fearfully behind closed doors were hardly ready believers. The two on the Emmaus road were dejected doubters. But then they met Jesus, and meeting Him made the difference. It can for you. Easter is for believers. You can believe.