“For the first time since 1956, Easter Sunday falls on April 1 – or April Fool’s Day. Since 1900, Easter has fallen on April Fool’s Day only four times – 1923, 1934, 1945 and 1956. It won’t happen again until 2029,” according to a recent article posted on AL.com.

The article went on to explain that Easter generally falls between March 22 and April 25 each year. It is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the spring equinox, which occurred on March 20 this year.

It seems ironic to me that Easter Sunday and April’s Fool’s Day would coincide. Celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is not a joking matter. It is truth, not trickery. We can read eyewitness accounts of hundreds of people who saw Jesus alive after His crucifixion.

John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” This is the Gospel truth.

Still, there are some people who do not believe in God or Jesus. The Apostle Paul wrote, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). The Psalmist put it this way, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1).

C.S. Lewis, a former atheist, once wrote, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him, ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

“You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.”

A brilliant physicist named Stephen Hawking died last week after a long battle with ALS. He was an atheist. Hawking reportedly searhed for answers to questions such as “Where did everything come from?” “Why are we here?” “What’s the meaning of life?” “Who are we as human beings?” and “What is our ultimate destiny?” Those answers are not found through science.

Author/Pastor Rick Warren has said, “Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.” Missionary Jim Elliot, who was killed at age 28 while attempting to share the Gospel with a remote tribe in Ecuador, once said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

This Easter, if you have not believed in Christ, remember that He died for you so you can live for Him.

 

Jan White is an national award-winning religion columnist. She can be reached at jwhite@andycable.com