An Easter message from the Multi-Faith Network

The Trust Multi-Faith Network are pleased to share information about Easter, produced by Christian members of this EEAST Network.

What Easter means to a Christian

For Christians, Easter is so much more than a time for chocolate eggs and public holidays. This is called Holy Week which starts with Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey as people shouted and proclaimed Him as their King and laid palm branches on the ground. And ends with Good Friday and Easter Sunday when Jesus was crucified and then was raised from the dead.

For us Easter is as big as, if not bigger than, Christmas. In fact, the two go together because without Christmas there would be no Easter! At Christmas Jesus Christ (God) enters our world as a baby and is announced as ‘The Saviour of the World’. Easter is the reason and culmination of that coming when, about 33 years later, Jesus’ life is ended when He is falsely and unjustifiably sentenced to death on a Roman cross.

The Bible tells us that Jesus’ death was a deliberate and planned. This was a self-sacrificial action by God, to bring forgiveness and hope to the world. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, 3 days later, conquered death for all time and gives us hope of eternal life.

Christians believe that all our wrong-doing (‘sin’ in the Bible) separates us from God. We can’t fix that, because we can’t stop doing wrong and we can’t make-up for it. So, instead, Jesus’ sacrificial death (Good Friday) on the cross paid the price for all our sin. Through his death our sin can be forgiven and we can have a relationship with God, because our sin is no longer a barrier. When Jesus came back to life (Easter Sunday), he overcame death and the sin that causes it. When we trust in Jesus, God accepts his death for our sin:

Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.  God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear.

We would like to wish you all a happy and hopeful Easter time. You might like to listen to the Easter Hallelujah song.

If you’d like to find out more about the work of the Trust Multi-Faith Network, please contact multifaith@eastamb.nhs.uk. 

Published 6h April 2023