Which is more important – Christmas or Easter?

Which is more important - Christmas or Easter?  Since so many people only go to church on Christmas and Easter, I'm guessing it's a tough choice.  So they cover the bases, so to speak, and go to church for both.  But what if I told you that choosing between the two of them is kind of like forgetting that there are four bases in baseball?  That covering the bases thing is leaving out two really important days?

It's also like deciding whether 1 or 3 is more important - when the real goal was to get to 4.  If we're counting, it's 1, 2, 3, 4.  You can't get to four without 1, 2 and 3 - but remember, the goal was to actually reach 4. 

Just like the goal is to get back to home plate in baseball.  Being stranded on first, second or third gets nothing.  You only score after covering all of the bases - not just two, or even three, of them.

So here's what I'm talking about.  

Christmas

Christmas - that's #1.  It's when Jesus was born.  It's like the baseball player getting up to bat.  But if the player strikes out, hits a fly ball that's caught, gets tagged out, get's left on base, Etc. - nothing else matters. 

In the same way, if Jesus was born but nothing else happened, there's no big deal.

Good Friday

Good Friday is #2.  So you see, there's something in between Christmas and Easter.  Something we really cannot ignore.  Not without losing the whole point of what happened.

For those who may not know, Good Friday is the day Jesus was crucified.  The day He died.

In between Christmas and Good Friday, Jesus said and did a bunch of stuff that makes Him different from the rest of us.  It's because of those things that we celebrate Christmas and Easter.  For instance, Jesus said He was God.  He healed people.  He performed various miracles.  And Jesus brought a whole new understanding of what the Old Testament was really about.  Not like He made something up - but that He really knew.

Mt 7:28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

So while many people will try to say that Jesus was a good moral teacher - statements like that make no sense.  Jesus claimed to be God!  How could anyone consider Jesus to be a good moral teacher, but not be God like He said He was?  Only a crazy person - or an incredible liar - could claim to be God, but in reality just be a "regular" person?  Those aren't good traits for a good moral teacher.

There's really no choice - we must believe Jesus was God - or we must believe He was either crazy or lying.

While the events of His life, fulfilling so many Old Testament prophecies, performing miracles, and everything else, certainly should be proof enough - what comes next is even more proof.

However, to skip right from Christmas to Easter also skips all of that.  We all die.  But how many of us can do what Jesus said - that He conquered death and would come back to life?  So no - we really shouldn't skip Good Friday.  We should instead consider it as its name says - "Good" Friday.  Because it's the day that sets everything to come into motion.

Easter

Now we can get to #3 - Easter.  The day Jesus rose from the dead.  Not after three days, as some would claim - causing all sorts of problems as to why there's only one day between Good Friday and Easter.  No - it's "on the third day".

Mt 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

If you have an electronic version of the Bible, search for "on the third day".  You'll see that, in the NIV for example, it shows up 29 times.  Many of those are in the Old Testament, about things not related to Jesus.  "On the third day" is a theme that occurs many times.

And it's not three full days, as we may think today.  In the culture of the time, any portion of a day was considered "a day".  So crucifixion at any time on Friday was the first day.  Saturday is the second day.  And rising from the dead on Sunday is the third day.