A World Without Easter
In the summer of 2022 I visited the charming Alpine town of Oberammergau, Germany. I wandered its leafy streets lined with mural-painted houses, their balconies overflowing with flower boxes. After indulging in ice cream and shopping for the town’s famed woodcarvings, I settled in my theater seat for a five-and-a-half-hour performance of Jesus’ final week on earth.
Since 1634, Oberammergau has put on a passion play involving almost all its residents, first staged in thanksgiving for the end of the Black Plague. Normally the performances take place on the first year of a new decade (2010, 2020, etc.) but the new plague of COVID-19 had caused a delay of two years.
Scores of modern buses were depositing tourists from many foreign countries. Looking around, I saw groups from China, Japan, and Korea, in addition to many Europeans and Americans. That summer, almost half a million people would travel to secular Germany in order to sit through a presentation of Jesus’ passion, spoken and sung in a language that few of them could understand.
What attracted them? I wondered. At one point, more than a thousand actors filled the stage, shouting in guttural German, “Kreuzige ihn!” (Crucify him!). The audience fell silent as Pilate’s soldiers tortured and mocked their prisoner.
Some in my tour group criticized the play for short-changing the Resurrection; after all, only three of the libretto’s 132 pages focused on that seminal event. Yet the ratio reflects the Gospels’ accounts, which give far more attention to the ordeal of trials and crucifixion than to the triumphant conclusion. The criticism, however, raised a question: Would a tradition such as Oberammergau persist for four centuries in commemoration solely of a notable person’s death?
In Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and Moscow’s Red Square, respectively, I have watched thousands of people stand in line to view the preserved bodies of Mao Zedong and Vladimir Lenin. Martyrs, too, achieve an honored place in historical memory: Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi—and in recent days, Alexei Navalny.
Is that how would we remember Jesus, apart from Easter?
During his last meal with the disciples before his arrest, Jesus tried to explain the momentous changes underway. John 13-17 records much of the dialogue, in which Jesus foretells the future. “One of you is going to betray me,” he says, and identifies the culprit. He tells them that he, their leader, is departing, but not really; in some ways he’ll be even closer. More than ever before, he makes his identity clear, causing Philip to puzzle over the sensational claim, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
Two assertions that evening must have haunted his disciples in the days to come. The first: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Within a few hours they would witness Jesus’ arrest and an excruciating sequence of abuse and execution reserved for the worst of criminals. This is how he overcomes the world? It was too much to swallow for Peter, who first showed bravado by brandishing a sword on Jesus’ behalf. Soon, though, he would follow Judas in a three-fold act of betrayal.
The second mind-bending assertion: “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.” The disciples were still basking in the glow of Palm Sunday, just a few days before, when shouts of “Hosanna! Blessed is the king of Israel!” echoed through the streets of Jerusalem. They were anticipating glory, the smug reward of loyalists who have cast their lots with a conquering hero. Jesus abruptly redefined glory by washing their feet—against Peter’s protest—and naming the greatest love as laying down one’s life for one’s friends.
I sympathize with the disciples’ bafflement. Wouldn’t it have been better if Jesus had stayed on earth? How differently would Christian history have unfolded if we had a Pope Jesus to veto the Crusades and Inquisitions, ban slavery, and answer our questions about ethical matters such as just wars and gender issues?
Jesus outlined the ways in which his departure could be construed as good. He would bring about a new kind of intimacy: “I no longer call you servants…Instead, I have called you friends.” Drawing on a familiar analogy, he likened their new closeness to a grape branch’s connection to the vine. In short, he was elevating human agency so that his followers would do the work of God, just as he had done. More, by leaving earth, he would open the way for God’s Spirit, the Advocate, to come and provide the nourishment and wisdom they needed.
Although reclining around the same table, Jesus and his disciples viewed reality very differently. Jesus reminisced cosmically about a time “before the creation of the world,” while the Twelve (now eleven) could barely remember their lives before this strange rabbi ordered them to follow him. Jesus saw “the prince of this world” coming for him through Judas’s treachery, whereas the disciples thought Judas was running an errand. Jesus foresaw the persecution to come, the descent into Hades, his resurrection and return to the Father; the disciples murmured among themselves, “We don’t understand what he is saying.”
Easter changed everything, but not all at once. A Hollywood script would have had Jesus appearing on Pilate’s porch on Monday morning, with a choir of angels booming, “He’s back!” Jesus showed less drama, the kind of low-key approach depicted at Oberammergau. He surprised women at the empty tomb; joined a couple of old friends on the way to Emmaus; mysteriously appeared in a locked room to address Thomas’s doubts; gave a fishing lesson to some disciples who had returned to their former occupations in Galilee.
After about six weeks of such random sightings, the disciples gathered again, still unsure about the future. Would Jesus remain on earth after all? If not, what did he expect of them? In the first meeting with the disciples after his resurrection, Jesus had commissioned them, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And at the Ascension he literally turned over the mission to the ragtag group that was still hoping he would revive their faded dreams of glory.
It’s up to you now, their leader said in effect. Jesus had healed diseases, cast out demons, and brought comfort and solace to the poor, the oppressed, and the suffering—but only in one small corner of the Roman empire. Now he was setting loose his followers to take that same message to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth.
Fast forward two thousand years. Today three billion people around the world identify as followers of Jesus. The message he brought has spread to Europe, Asia, and every other continent. The chances of that happening without the jolting event we celebrate as Easter are vanishingly small. Before his resurrection, Jesus’ few followers were denying him and hiding from the temple police. Even afterward, Thomas doubted until he saw proof in flesh and scars. Something happened to give the disciples a glimpse of Jesus’ cosmic view.
At the end of that poignant last supper described in John 13-17, Jesus prayed for all who would follow. “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.…Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
How are we doing, we Jesus followers in the twenty-first century? We should be known for our unity and our confident hope, for we “are not of the world any more than I am of the world,” as Jesus prayed. If we truly believe Jesus has risen, and let that reality soak in, it should help calm fear and anxiety over such matters as the economy, the 2024 elections, and global unrest. 
To the watching world, followers of Jesus should stand out as peacemakers: “bridge” people committed to love, not despise, our opponents—even our enemies.
A friend of mine was stopped dead in her tracks by a skeptic. After listening to her explain her faith, he said this: “But you don’t act like you believe God is alive.”
I try to turn the skeptic’s accusation into a question: Do I act like God is alive? It is a good question, one I must ask myself again every day.
(Bible quotations: John 13:21, 14:9, 16:33, 16:7, 12:13, 15:15, 17:24, 16:18, 20:21, 17:20-23, 17:14)
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20 responses to “A World Without Easter”
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About Philip Yancey
For Yancey, reading offered a window to a different world. So, he devoured books that opened his mind, challenged his upbringing, and went against what he had been taught. A sense of betrayal engulfed him.
I just watched your message at the ROC in Leawood, KS. I appreciate the message to be a good big brother and how we are called to show Christ by our actions and words and testimony. I also appreciate this post – Am I living like God is alive and more powerful than sin? That’s quite a beautiful truth to ponder.
May we all keep humbling ourselves, turning to the One who gives us life, and show Christ to our communities.
Do I act like God is alive? Thanks Philip. Nowadays, the question for me is even more personal. It is not only that God is alive, it is also that He loves me, unworthy as I am. Thus, the question for me then is “Do I act like God’s beloved”?
Philip
Peter followed Judas “with a three-fold act of betrayal …” ??
No, it was denial that Peter entered into. Semantics? No, different word, I checked just to make sure.
And different act: Judas – premeditated; Peter – caved in spite of best effort, exactly as Jesus said. There was no following or even parallel, rather two very different tangents.
What a great question. I don’t think I’ve sat and thought about what the characteristics of someone who believes God is alive would be. I’ve been a Christian since I was 13 (now 64) and before that grew up around church and Christians. My grandmother, “Mawmaw” was probably the only one I could say I would want to emulate. She was quiet, never talked about anyone negatively, always ready with a meal or snack and I believed prayed quietly for all of us. Pretty simple really. But is that going to prove to everyone that I believe God is alive? Probably not.
I believe, and maybe this is not new but just more prolific, the definitions of what traditional Christianity taught has changed. We can’t love with unity because we define love differently from each other-other Christians. To one love means accept unconditionally. To another it means love but tell them the truth. Which is the next problem-truth. Whose truth? What truth? Biblical truth, you say? Whose interpretation ? In this information age, the more information we have the more we try to cram it into our tiny box of a brain. Some of us are able to get rid of some of the old info to make room for new. Others just keep stacking and rearranging, seeking one more tiny crevice to store one more piece. But again, definitions. Deconstruction has become all the rage. Some are able to just “disentangle ” while others completely demolish everything they were taught and build back with a tower of their own making.
The only way I know to show that I believe God is alive is to keep living as if I don’t know it all. And because I don’t, I choose to trust God and reconcile my questions and “if onlys” to his Sovereignty. Whether that proves to someone I believe God is alive or not, I don’t know. As always, thank you for making me think.
Interestingly, I have been to Ommeramagau myself, but not at Easter. It is a mysterious thing, this belief in a God, and his son Jesus, and how his gruesome death could be a “way forward”. For all the unbelievers, those who say religion is bad, there is no God, and all that, how has any of those views helped or improved the world? The secular has as much to answer for as traditional religion. The cult of “me, me, me” hasn’t done anything uplifting to humanity, and has actually made things worse, in my view. Thank you for your message and images. Well done.
Thank you Philip for your inspiring Easter reflection from my home country Germany to the launch of new creation through the resurecction of Jesus. As ‘Jesus people’ we can and should be reflecting that new life of Jesus into a broken world today like living signposts of God’s new creation that was launched in and through Jesus and that in the end it will bring restoration of the whole of creation ( Col. 1:15-20)
That question alone is enough to reignite Faith Philip!
For if we can’t answer it with a powerful YES…. can we even be considered Christians!?
I have struggled with anxiety ridden doubt for 3 yrs after 26 years of solid Christianity……reading the Bible daily!
For 3 years now I’ve prayed for God to help me find Him again….still reading the Bible daily….and yet ….hearing only silence…. till I read that question!
You hit the nail on the head just as you always do!
May it help me come back to knowing that YES – God is alive and I can lay the burden on him and Love my enemies and live without the worlds anxiety!
For without being able to lay the burden on Him…. I have to carry it!
God has been waiting for me to give it up to Him and I haven’t been able to.
Of course he’s alive. And He will be ……today, yesterday and forever.💔❤️🩹❤️
Oh my. How can I read the biblical account so many times and still be shown truth I had not thought of! Thank you, Philip, for new things to think about from such an old story. And yet the story is never old. Thaniks for this wonderful insight.
Blessings.
All I can say is a quiet but fierce “yes” to this message. So well spoken for the times we are living in. Thank you…
As always….challenged!
‘Do I act like God is alive?’
Thank you, again and again, Philip Yancey, for getting straight to the core… to the most important question for believers: am I acting like I believe?
My prayer today is to act more like I do!!!
Janice
Thank you Philip – thank you
Eleanor Wells (nee Brighton, Les’s sister)
NEW ZEALAND
Thank you always. Your books line our shelves. Your words strengthen my heart. Jesus lives. Help me, Lord, to live each day changed by your love.
Thank you Philip—An additional excerpt from a little known note by Wes Craven
“The sealed stone of Roman imperative could not hold Him, and we were amazed . Could it be that He was more than the rabbi? Were his words more than bravery? When we finally grasp the meaning of a barren tomb, we shout jubilation outside in the early dawn. Now in the depths brak-green forest is a clearing and a field. There our lonely voices cried alone for generations of ages; there the lion roamed unfettered and broke our bodies in his great maul…this dread eternal forest that is death and dying, hate and holding was our home.
Then rose the lily and bloomed in the early morning.
That dawn came upon the wilderness and drenched the heavens in scarlet; the streams of the earth ran red with the reflected fury of a whole darkness being vanquished.
Easter morning, the lily was there, pure white upon the fields, pure white within the forest , to be picked and taken to every believer’s table. The waters of the stream are now pure and quenching, in a way they never were before; the tomb is eternally thwarted. So the word spread: love does not stop at death; the grave is a passage, not a dead end, an isthmus between time and eternity, death and life.
Why? Because the lily lives. ”
An excerpt from “Resurrection Notes”, By my friend Wes Craven—1963 in The Wheaton College Literary Magazine
I wonder what Wes thinks of that quote now…
Such a timely message for me to receive. God gets my attention through Jesus on earth, a real live person immersed in our humanity who shows us love. No I often don’t act like God is alive because I want full control. Today I let go of control.
What a beautiful reminder of the “unexpected” nature of Easter. And the time together in Oberammergau.
What a poignant ending to this incredible story! That question will stay with me. Do I act like God is alive???
Thanks for the great uplift Philip as we approach Easter. Praise be to God for his great sacrifice I am hoping in prayer and words that what I think, and say will show that I do believe in the power of Christ and his resurrection in saving us!
Happy Easter!!
Thank you for the reminders from accounts I’ve heard many times. As a follower of Christ I am not of this world, just as He was not of this world. Christ in me. The hope of the world. ❤️