Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Your Easter

During Holy Week, we celebrate the death of Jesus. That’s right, celebrate. Strange as it may seem to celebrate the death of someone we love — indeed the one whom we worship — we do, we celebrate it.

We call it Good Friday, not Bad Friday, or Terrible Friday, even though it was horrible. It was the worst day in the history of the world. That is, until Jesus rose and turned the world upside down and made Terrible Friday into Good Friday. 

So, a death we would not have celebrated became a death we do now celebrate — albeit, with sobriety, not flippancy; with deep joy, not casually. We mark Maundy Thursday and Good Friday as days of sorrow for our sin and yet (more profoundly) rejoicing, because the one who died for us on that Friday was raised in triumph to live again on Sunday morning.

As Christians who now, because of Easter, celebrate the death of Jesus, and tell others of the death of Jesus, we do well to always remember the place of Jesus’s resurrection as we emphasize his death and its saving power. And Easter Sunday is such a good time to rehearse. And then, not package it up and put it in the attic till next year, but live in the reality everyday that Jesus is alive.

In Romans 8, when Paul says, “Christ Jesus is the one who died,” he doesn’t just leave it there at his death. He doesn’t move on, but then adds, “more than that, who was raised.” This is Romans 8:34:

“Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

So the Easter exhortation is this: Don’t let the sun go down on your Easter. It is good to celebrate this day. But we dare not restrict our celebration of his resurrection to one day per year. Rather, this day is a special reminder together that he is risen and he is alive and reigning every day, seated at his Father’s right hand, and interceding for us. 

He not only rose. He is alive. 

And we know that Christ, says Romans 6:9, being raised from the dead, will never die again.

Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, he was raised!

Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, 

If your Son did not rise, then that Terrible day was not a Good Friday. And if he did not rise, then the work which he seemed to finish on the cross was utterly in vain. And if he did not rise, then what does it even mean to be saved and live forever, if our Bridegroom and Treasure and Pearl of Greatest Price is dead?

But Father, you did raise your Son. Jesus is alive. He rose, and still lives, never to die again. And he sits at your right hand, on the universe’s seat of honor as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He rules the nations, as he has for two millennia. There he intercedes for us. And from there he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

And so now, in light of his finished work, and indestructible resurrection life, never to die again, and his promise to return, we bring before you now our own sins and failures in this quiet of this moment.

Father in heaven,

Father, thank you for designing our redemption and sending your Son. Thank you for his death — and more than that, his resurrection and that he is alive, and reigning, and interceding for us.

And so on Easter Sunday, as a reminder for every day, we renounce our sins and renew our resolve for holiness. The sting of death is sin — but thanks be to you, Father, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.