On Easter Sunday morning, Christians will come together in one of the most globally-unifying annual events to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Although we often get together with family and friends on Easter, it is easy to forget just how unifying that day is. About 2.2 billion people, nearly one-third of the world’s population, will put aside their differences and all give thanks to God, “for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
What’s amazing about Easter is how difficult it is to get that many people to agree on any one thing. As Christians, we disagree about a lot of things.
Catholicism versus Protestantism. Should congregants choose their pastors, or should higher-ups in the church hierarchy? Should women be allowed to be pastors, or to serve as lay leaders? Is drinking any alcohol a sin, or just drunkenness? What about gay marriage? We usually can’t even agree about the liturgical calendar (although this year Easter coincides for both Western and Eastern Orthodox Christians).
Regardless of our differences, Christians can be glad Easter is an occasion where all are welcome in church, including those of other religions (or no faith at all) as well as Christians who don’t regularly attend church. The church where I’m a member is doing several baptisms on Easter Sunday — one of those getting baptized is from a Middle Eastern country where he feels persecuted as a Christian. Among the regular attendees are several Muslims and a Hindu.
While reading through the Old Testament, I am reminded that religion was historically very much separated by ethnicity or nationality. It sounds normal today, but the emphasis Jesus placed on “all nations” in his Great Commission to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” must have scared the disciples at the time.
Spread Jesus’ revolutionary teachings not just to Jews, but to the Gentiles as well? And without Jesus here in-person to help us, no less?
But the disciples clearly got the message and stuck by it. As Paul wrote in Galatians 3, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
As Christians of all nations, races and denominations gather on Sunday, let us all remember those beautiful words and keep our churches open to all those who seek Christ.
Jason Russell is the contributors editor for the Washington Examiner.
