Why does the celebration of Easter vary so much?

Greetings All!

When people discover I am a pastor it often leads to questions they have about God or the church. This was the case the other day when at the YMCA an older gentleman asked me: "Why is Easter so late this year?"  As I always try to find the answer when asked, I collected the following data to share with him.  Yet its not the first time I've been asked that question. So I offer this to you in case you wondered or have been asked the same.  Why does the celebration of Easter vary so much?  The answer lies below!  Enjoy!

Why Does the Day to Celebrate Easter Vary So Much from Year to Year?

     This year most Christians in the Western hemisphere will celebrate Easter on Sunday, April 21, which is much later than last year’s April 1, or 2008’s Easter, which fell on March 23. This may make it “seem” like Easter is late this year, but according to the lunar calendar, it's right on time!  Easter Sunday is known as a "movable feast" because unlike Christmas (which always falls on Dec. 25), the celebration of Easter within the church does not adhere to a single date.  Rather, it always falls within a certain time period – on a specific Sunday between March 22 and April 25. This is because – NOTE:  Easter is always celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on, or after, the Northern Hemisphere’s vernal equinox (spring equinox).

     Scripture puts Jesus’ death following the Jewish Passover, celebrated on a full moon in Spring. So, early Christians decided to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection according to that Jewish calendar tradition. In an effort to standardize this, in 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicaea, the Western Church compiled information about lunar cycles into an ecclesiastical full moon table and made March 21 the standard date of the vernal equinox.

     One of the more noteworthy contradictions of this dating will be Easter in the year 2038. Astronomically, Easter should fall on March 28 that year, but because the equinox falls on Saturday, March 20 in that year, and the full moon occurs the next day, Easter will be observed on April 25 – its latest possible date given the lunar cycle's length of about a month. So, while Easter may feel "late" this year, the 2038 celebration will take place even later.

     Same Easter, Different Day

     At the Council in Nicaea (called for the purpose of seeking to create greater unity in a Church encompassing many peoples and cultures), the council thought they had finalized a universal date for Easter. However, what they didn't count on was a later split in the church which occurred in 1054. The “Great Schism” of 1054 became the dividing point for the church.

     The Roman Empire had already divided itself into the Eastern (Byzantine) and Western (Roman) Empires, and even though the church tried to maintain a semblance of universal unity, it soon divided as well. Not only did the Eastern and Western halves form their own separate empires, they also chose their own spiritual heads for each church (Pope Leo the IX for the Western church, and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius for the Eastern or Orthodox church). They split over doctrinal an “head of the church” issues, but when it came to Easter, both still believed Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon to follow the Spring equinox.

     Yet in 1582 (528 years later) the Catholic Church switched over from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.  The Julian Calendar proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. took the place of the old Roman calendar on 1 January 45 BC, by royal edict. This was the predominant calendar of the Roman world and most of Europe until it was replaced by the Gregorian Calendar put forth in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII.

     The Julian calendar has two types of years: "normal" years of 365 days and “leap” years of 366 days. There is a simple cycle of three "normal" years followed by a “leap” year, and this pattern repeats forever without exception. The Julian year is, therefore, on average 365.25 days long. Consequently, the Julian year drifts over time with respect to the solar year which is 365.24217 days. The Julian calendar did not compensate for this difference and as a result, even with “leap” years, the calendar year gains about three days every four centuries. This discrepancy was largely corrected by the Gregorian calendar reform of 1582.

     The Orthodox Church still holds to the original Nicaean Council's formula for Easter, but by using a different calendar system, the vernal equinox (which now falls on March 21 under the Gregorian calendar), is on April 3 under the Julian calendar.  Therefore, the Eastern Orthodox Easter this year is April 28. The two churches celebrate the same Easter holiday, but on two different days. Whereas the “Catholic” Easter falls anywhere between March 22 and April 25, the “Orthodox” Easter now falls anywhere between April 4 and May 8.

     In rare instances the dates align and Easter is celebrated simultaneously. For example, both the Orthodox and Catholic Easter fell on the same day in 2010, 2011, 2014 and in 2017. However, with the way the two calendars work, they will not fall on the same day again until 2034.

     I know some people will not care about such things, but some will.       For those who did, today was your day!  Yet, regardless of the day Easter is celebrated on, the more important fact is what we celebrate -- the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!  For as the apostle Paul tells us, it was Jesus' resurrection that "declared" (proved) Him to be the Son of God.  As Romans 1:1-4 states: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God -- the Gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God through his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord."

     Though the disciples confessed Jesus to be the "Son of God" right up until He went to the cross, when He died from the suffering inflicted by crucifixion, it left them all disillusioned, questioning everything, and hiding in fear and despair from the authorities. That is, until they saw, encountered and touched His resurrected body! Then all doubt was erased! For through that miracle He was, "declared with power (God put a divine exclamation point on it!) to be the Son of God... Jesus Christ our Lord."  So, regardless of the day we celebrate it (I prefer it later in the Spring!) it is that event we look forward to, honor, and rejoice in in our hearts. To Him be glory in the Church, now and forever more. Amen.

Living in the Hope of Jesus' Resurrection, Pastor Jeff

Holy Week -- the cross and the resurrection

Greetings All,

     I just returned from a three week ministry trip to India, thus explaining why you have not received one of these thoughts for a few weeks!
     It was wonderful, as usual, with many reasons to praise God. Yet it reminded me of one of the things that occurs whenever one ministers cross-culturally, or in a setting where pluralism, syncretism, or relativism are the dominate prevailing philosophy. Therefore I wanted to share this excerpt that a friend posted on his Facebook page recently. It is so true - here in the States and elsewhere.
















      
      I know we are coming up on Good Friday and Easter, and on Holy Week I usually post a thought addressing one of those two events.  But this year I would like to change that up a bit and post this thought from J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937).  He was Professor of New Testament at Princeton University Seminary, between 1906 and 1929.  And I share his thoughts this week because it is actually the events of Holy Week -- the cross and the resurrection -- that make what he says here all the more relevant.
     Christ's sinless life of obedience, sufferings, sin-atoning death, and resurrection -- when rightly understood in their biblical framework of redemption -- are what gave Jesus, the disciples, and the apostles, the basis for proclaiming that salvation is found in Him alone (John 3:1-8, Acts 2:38-41, Acts 4:12, etc.).  The early church humbly proclaimed this because they understood the ultimate purpose behind His substitutionary life of obedience and death for sin.  The modern church, if they do understand it, tends to be embarrassed by the exclusivity of such a claim.  Machen sheds a bit of light on that, even this piece was written about 100 years ago. Enjoy.

     "The early Christian missionaries demanded an absolutely exclusive devotion to Christ. Such exclusiveness ran directly counter to the prevailing syncretism of the Hellenistic age.  In that day, many saviours were offered by many religions to the attention of men, but the various pagan religions could live together in perfect harmony; for when a man became a devotee of one god, he did not have to give up the others.

     But Christianity would have nothing to do with these “courtly polygamies of the soul."  It demanded an absolutely exclusive devotion.  All other saviours, it insisted, must be deserted for the one Lord.  Salvation, in other words, was not merely through Christ, but it was only through Christ.  In that little word “only” lay all the offence. Without that word there would have been no persecutions; the cultured men of the day would probably have been willing to give Jesus a place, and an honorable place, among the saviours of mankind.

     Without its exclusiveness, the Christian message would have seemed perfectly inoffensive to the men of that day. So modern liberalism, placing Jesus alongside other benefactors of mankind, is perfectly inoffensive in the modern world.  All men speak well of it.  It is entirely inoffensive.  But it is also entirely futile. The offence of the Cross is taken away, but so is the glory and the power."

     He is so right.  His comments were accurate then, and they still hit home today.  No one really tends to mind if a person looks to Jesus as a moral guide, or spiritual instructor, or life-example.  Jesus as a man, prophet, or spiritual guide, tends to be respected in most all places by most all people. It's Jesus as Lord, and Jesus as Savior that stirs up antagonism, opposition and persecution. The cross humbles (shatters) the pride of humanity, while His Lordship assaults the autonomy of humanity.

     We like to do what we want without being told that certain choices and options are just plain wrong, and we want to believe our efforts at gaining God's favor can make us acceptable to Him -- the first being nullified by His Lordship, the second by His death of the cross (Gal. 2:21 / I Cor. 1:20-31).

     So, as you contemplate the events that took place on that first "Holy Week" so long ago, consider this: The cross proclaims I cannot be saved apart from what happened to Jesus on it. All my best efforts fall far short (Isaiah 64:6). And His resurrection proclaims He is the Lord to whom I owe all due obedience (Romans 1:4-5).  If I miss either of those, I have really missed two of the primary messages of Holy Week.

In the Service of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Reflections on the events of Holy Week -- Good Friday and Easter to be specific

Greetings All,

     Today I simply send you seven different reflections on the events of Holy Week -- Good Friday and Easter to be specific.  They are all insightful. I trust you will find food in each one to uplift and nourish your soul.  Enjoy.

          "I am wholly deserving of all the consequences that I will in fact never receive, simply because God unashamedly stepped in front of me on the cross, unflinchingly spread His arms so as to completely shield me from the retribution that was mine to bear, and repeatedly took the blows. And I stand entirely unwounded, utterly lost in the fact that the while His body was pummeled and bloodied to death by that which was meant for me and me alone, I have not a scratch."

Craig D. Lounsbrough,  An Intimate Collision

       "Despite our earnest efforts, we couldn't climb all the way up to God. So what did God do? In an amazing act of condescension, on Good Friday, God climbed down to us, became one with us. The story of divine condescension begins on Christmas and ends on Good Friday. We thought, if there is to be business between us and God, we must somehow get up to God. Then God came down, down to the level of the cross, all the way down to the depths of hell. He who knew not sin took on our sin so that we might be free of it... “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” he asked his disciples, before his way up Golgotha. Our answer is an obvious, “No!” His cup is not only the cup of crucifixion and death, it is the bloody, bloody cup that one must drink if one is going to get mixed up with us. Any God who would wander into the human condition, any God who has this thirst to pursue us, had better not be too put off by pain, for that's the way we tend to treat our saviors. Any God who tries to love us had better be ready to die for it. As Chesterton writes, “Any man who preaches real love is bound to beget hate … Real love has always ended in bloodshed."

William Willimon, Thank God It's Friday: Encountering the Seven Last Words from the Cross

     "Salvation was bought not by Jesus' fist, but by His nail-pierced hands; not by muscle but by love; not by vengeance but by forgiveness; not by force but by sacrifice. Jesus Christ our Lord surrendered in order that He might win; He destroyed His enemies by dying for them and conquered death by allowing death to conquer Him."

A. W. Tozer, Preparing For Jesus Return: Daily Live the Blessed Hope

     "The gifts of Jesus are these: freedom, life, hope, new direction, transformation, and intimacy with God. If the cross was the end of the story, we would have no hope. But the cross isn't the end. Jesus didn't escape from death; he conquered it and opened the way to heaven for all who will dare to believe. The truth of this moment, if we let it sweep over us, is stunning. It means Jesus really is who he claimed to be, we are really as lost as he said we are, and he really is the only way for us to intimately and spiritually connect with God again." 

Steven James, The Story

     “Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of God's new project, not to snatch people away from earth to heaven, but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about.” 

N. T. Wright,  Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church

"Easter is…
  Joining in a birdsong,
  Eyeing an early sunrise,
  Smelling yellow daffodils,
  Unbolting windows and doors,
  Skipping through meadows,
  Cuddling newborns,
  Hoping, believing,
  Reviving spent life,
  Inhaling fresh air,
  Sprinkling seeds along furrows,
  Tracking in the mud.
  Easter is the soul’s first taste of spring."

Richelle E. Goodrich,  Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts and a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year

"Happy Easter to you, my friend!
  This day’s light shall have no end.
  For Christ did rise in the golden morn
  And by His life we are reborn."

Paul F. Kortapeter,  Holly Pond Hill: A Child's Book of Easter.

Blessings on your week,  Pastor Jeff

Easter Sunday 1973 at a Church in Uganda

Greetings All,

     Today's 'thought' comes from a magazine/newsletter called "Weavings" (Vol. III, No. 3, May/June 1988).  I do not know the author's name since the photocopy of the article which I possess (given to me by a pastor friend) does not
include it.  Although, since its merely a true story recounting the events that ocurred at a church in Uganda on Easter Sunday of 1973, the facts really speak for themselves despite who put them together.  
  
    During the absolute rule of Islamic dictator Idi Amin, over 500,000 people were killed.  And since the persecution did have religious overtones, many targeted for death were Christians, including Janani Luwum, the Anglican Archbishop murdered during that time. I found it to be an inspiring testimony of a faithful Christian pastor in the face of severe persecution. I trust his story might speak to you as it did to me.  Enjoy.

     "It was Easter Sunday, 1973.  Uganda was under the absolute dictator, Idi Amin.  Kefa Sempangi was a pastor in that tortured land. Under the growing shadow of Amin, Uganda was becoming a land of terror.  Still fresh in Sempangi's memory was a face burned beyond recognition, the sight of soldiers cruelly beating a man, and the horrible sound of boots crushing bones.  Sempangi was exhausted and wondered what difference his sermon that morning could make.  He prayed for wisdom and strength and then delivered his sermon to seven thousand people.

       Afterward he made his way to the vestry, tired but joyful.  Five men followed him into the small building and closed the door behind them.  Sempangi turned around to find five rifles pointed at his face.  He had never seen any of them before, but immediately recognized them as the secret police of the State Research Bureau -- Idi Amin's assassins.  Their faces were full of pure hate and rage.     

    'We are going to kill you,' said the leader.  'If you have something to say, say it now before you die.'  Sempangi stood there feeling himself lose control.  He thought of his wife and child and began to shake. Somehow he managed to speak.

        'I do not need to plead my own cause,' he said, 'I am a dead man already. My life is dead and hidden in Christ. It is your lives that are in danger, you are dead in your sins. I will pray to God that after you have killed me, He will spare you from eternal destruction.'
       The leader looked at him with curiosity.  Then he lowered his gun and ordered the others to do the same. 'Will you pray now?' the leader of the assassins asked. Though fearing it was a trick, Sempangi asked them to bow their heads and close their eyes. 'Father in heaven,' he prayed, 'you have forgiven men in the past, forgive these men also. Do not let them perish in their sins, but bring them unto yourself.' 
        Sempangi lifted his head waiting for the men to pull their triggers. But then he noticed their faces.  Gone was the hate and rage, and when the leader spoke again, it was without contempt.
        'You have helped us,' he said, 'and we will help you. We will speak to the rest of our company and they will leave you alone. Do not fear for your life. It is in our hands and you will be protected.'
        Relief and joy flooded through Sempangi's heart.  God's love had given him the strength to say a simple prayer --  one that changed the lives of thse five men forever and saved his own."

        Sempangi's story made me think:  What would I do, say, or pray, if I had five angry, hateful men pointing their rifles at my face and telling me I would die because of my faith in a matter of minutes?  Would I have the confidence in Christ, and His love, and the eternal life He promises, that would give me the courage to confirm the truth they were going to kill me for and pray for their salvation?  Only God knows for sure. 
         Yet simply asking the question is helpful, since it calls us to ponder if we truly believe what we say or claim to believe.  It's one thing to bodly and joyfully confess our faith in a room full of similarly-minded Christian people.  It's something altogether different to do it when our lives (here on earth) might end because of it, leaving our spouse widowed, and our children fatherless or motherless.  And given the fact that the persecution of Christians worldwide has increased dramatically in the past century (more Christians have been martyred in the past 100 years than in all the previous 1900 combined) -- it's not a simple flight of fancy to at least consider the possibility, remote as it may still be. 

                        Soli Deo Gloria, Pastor Jeff

God is with Us

Greetings All,

     As I write this the sun is streaming in my office window.  It's beautiful outside.  The sky is blue, the temperature is in the high 60's, not a cloud in sight, buds are forming on the trees, and the flowers are starting to break the surface of the ground - finally! 

    What a lifter of the spirits after a long dreary winter!  I've been tempted to go out into the field next to the church, gaze heavenward and soak in the rays of the sun (though I won't since I'm working)! 

    Such days make one feel like God is smiling down upon the earth - and me - even though I am well aware that the weather (and my fleeting emotional response to it), is obviously a foolish way to measure my standing with God at any given time!!!  

    

     The truth is I must guard against such subliminal, or emotion-based responses, lest I have to interpret these past few months of cold, cloudy, overcast, stormy days as signs of His displeasure with me and the world  -- and thereby allow the weather (of all things!) to control my moods.  

    Tempting as it is to do that, our emotional responses to our circumstances or our situations can be terribly misleading and even harmful to our spiritual walk.  That's what our "thought" for this week addresses - how Satan uses the way we feel to tempt us.  It's by Joyce Huggett, in her book "Reflections for Lent."  Her words are worth your consideration.  Enjoy!

   

    "On the days when we cannot feel God's presence Satan tries to persuade us that God has abandoned us;

 that he is a God who is more absent than present.  He would even tempt us to doubt God's trustworthiness. 

 These lies are to be rejected.

   

 

 The tempter is also capable of using our innermost thoughts and desires to bring about our downfall.  He launches his attack against our mind, our will and our passions, so that even though we know that a certain place is riddled with temptation, we go there anyway.  And Satan wins another round in the eternal conflict between good and evil in our lives.

    There are times when Satan confuses us so much that we don't know whether we want to obey God or not.  Michel Quoist expressed this confusion powerfully in a prayer he once wrote: 

 

                 I'm at the end of my tether, Lord.

                 I am shattered.

                 I am broken.

                 Since this morning I have been struggling to escape temptation,

                 which, now subtle, now persuasive, now tender, now sensuous,

                 dances before me like a glamour girl at a fair. 

                 

                 

                 I don't know what to do.

                 I don't know where to go.

                 It spies on me, follows me, engulfs me. 

                 When I leave one room, I find it seated and waiting for me

                 in the next...

  

      Huggett then ends the reflection with a prayer of her own: 

 

        "It seems almost a law of life, dear Lord, that after every great moment I experience I swing from the stars

 to the mud.  And it is while I am struggling in the mud of my own defeat that Satan comes to me as the accuser, using my weariness and discouragement, my moods and depressions, to cause me to doubt you. 

  

      Teach me to resist the devil, Lord, just as you did.  Cause me to be vigilant, conscious that he is ever ready to trip me up.  May I, like you, triumph over him by submitting to the Father's will." 

            

             When it comes to nice weather, I simply choose to enjoy it while it lasts and its mood lifting effects!  When it 

comes to my standing with God, I look to nothing but Jesus blood and righteousness, and the promise that regardless of what comes my way, "neither death, nor life...nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

                         

Enjoy what He has made,  Pastor Jeff

        

Dr. Jeffrey F. Evans