The Meaning of Easter

In a few hours I am to preach on the meaning of Easter to about 1000 people on the top of Aspen Mountain. In preparation I wrote a carefully worded and very safe talk that would educate everyone and offend no one.

About an hour ago, I awoke in my hotel on fire with a very different talk. I tried to sleep it off, but I couldn't. So I got up, went to my Macbook Air and feverishly wrote a new talk. I was taking dictation more than composing something of my own. When my fingers stopped typing, I was confronted with the speech below. This is the talk I will deliver at two different Easter services in the morning. I'm posting it now so I won't back down from sharing it later.

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Easter is one of the most important holy days we humans have, and it strikes at the very heart of religion even as religion seeks to tame it to its own ends. Easter puts and end to our fear of death, the very fear that lies at the heart of religion itself.

The message of Easter, the radical message of Jesus’ death and resurrection, isn’t that he died for our sins—Jesus never made that claim, St. Paul did (Romans 4:25)—but that death itself could be defeated.

Jesus didn’t concern himself with death. In fact he courted death by confronting the government–sanctioned injustices of his own day. And he called us to the do the same. That is what it means to “take up your cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). It means to challenge the powers—political, military, religious, financial, cultural, etc.— that exploit and oppress and corrupt, and which enlist us in exploitation, oppression, and corruption by promising to show us a way out of death if we would only conform to their way of life.

But there is no way out, there is only the way through. Easter is not about escaping death, but about defeating it. Jesus died. And then he came back, not that we might worship him, but that we follow him.

Fredrich Nietzsche said, “That which doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.” Jesus showed us that even that which does kill us can make us stronger.

The cry of Easter is this: “The tomb is empty! Death isn’t the end! Be not afraid!” And fearless people are what scare the military–industrial–religious–media–financial–consumer complex the most. Their power depends on and feeds off our fear. Easter is the day to end that fear and break their power. Easter, like its elder sister Passover, isn’t about escaping from the injustices of this world, but about transforming this world with justice. And only fearless people can do this.

If you woke up scared this morning—fine. But if you leave this mountain just as scared, you’ve not heard the message of Easter.

If you want to know what difference Easter might make in your life, turn its message into a question and ask yourself this: “How would I live if I weren’t afraid?”

Make that question your gospel, your torah, your koan, your mantra. “How would I live if I weren’t afraid?” Turn that over and over in your heart and your mind until you are at last free.

This may not happen today. It doesn’t matter: the tomb is always empty. Death is always defeated.

Fearlessness is yours whenever you are ready to stop being afraid, whenever you are ready to stop worshipping Jesus and start following him.

Have a blessed and fearless Easter.