A Non Religious View Of Easter

Imagine our world with no golden rule. Think of our civilization with no free speech, no right to bear arms, and no right to assemble. Think of our world without human rights of any kind, which would mean no women’s rights, no rights for infants or children, and where human life is cheap or even without value. You are imagining a world where Jesus never lived.

Regardless of whether you believe in Jesus as the savior, or view him as just a good man, the fact that he lived has far reaching implications for our world.

If Jesus had never lived, it is very unlikely that you and I would be living in a democratic Republic, or that we would enjoy any of the freedoms that we have. We would also likely not have a world where progress and technology has become the norm. Slavery would not be abolished, nor would the practice of infant abandonment. There would be no hospitals, and a higher education would not mean very much to the vast majority of the world’s citizens.

In fact, we would all probably be pagans, worshiping a panoply of gods and goddesses, for every conceivable human need or desire. The idea of death would also mean something quite different for us. We would likely still hold to the Greek view that death is the end of all things for the individual, and that nothing exists beyond the grave.

In other words, our world would be unspeakably dark, and without hope of any kind.

But because Jesus lived in this world, and because he gave his life as a sacrifice for mankind, people by the millions in that first century carried the news of his life, and his teachings, and the story of his resurrection, to every corner of the known world. In doing so, they changed the course of human history, and they changed our world as well.

There is a reason we count our years from Jesus’ birth, and why we view him as the centerpiece of human history. There is also a good reason that those nations which consider themselves ‘Christian’ are the nations where progress excels, and technology thrives – and where their people are free, and human rights exist.

It is because of the simple and elegant teachings and beatitudes of Jesus, and the most eloquent example of his life. He died at the age of thirty-three. He never traveled outside of his own small country. He never owned land or had a family. He was so poor that he was buried in a borrowed tomb, and his only possession was a cloak. He died a horrendous death as a criminal, and by all rights, he should have been long forgotten, and unnoticed by history, or by anyone who lives today.

Yet this day, Easter, hundreds of millions celebrate both his death and his reported resurrection from the dead. They honor him, and even those who do not believe in him as anything more than a good man, or a great teacher, respect him for what he has given our world.

Frankly, I cannot imagine a world without Jesus in it. To my mind, such a world would be very hard to live in, and very easy to die a hopeless death in.

So, regardless of what you believe or think about Jesus, I wish you a happy Easter.