Why Easter and the Resurrection mean so much to all our lives.

For millennia, blood sacrifices abounded in pagan religions, and they still played a major role in Jewish theology at the dawn of the Christian era.  So it is natural that many people who hear the story of Jesus dying on the cross identify his death with such religious sacrifice.  But the true significance of Jesus' death and resurrection have no place in such a category.  In the Garden of Gethsemene, Jesus prayed to know what God would have him do.  He could have escaped and gone on with his ministry, but he was led by his heavenly Father, divine Mind, to stay and allow men to kill his body. He understood that Love makes no mistakes and that his suffering would, in the end, bless all mankind.  And truly, all mankind has been eternally blessed by the proof he thus gave of the power of his Father-Mother, God, divine, infinite Love.
Jesus' death and resurrection proved forever that matter and mortality did not have any power over the spiritual reality of his being.  Jesus' life was never at the mercy of evil men or bodily torture.  He continued to commune with divine Truth, Life, and Love both on the cross and in the tomb.  The result of this heavenly communion was that he proved that love is the master of hate and life triumphs over death.  He arose to testify to eternal life and to show his followers the omnipotent power of God, good - even over death and the grave.
So today as we bear our own crosses - our own needs to uplift our thoughts and lives above mortality and error - we can remember Jesus' great gift to us.  How could we possibly grumble over the incomparably tiny pains and problems we must face and overcome when we remember Jesus' time on the cross of Calvary.
The idea that God, who the Bible declares to be Love, would ever demand a blood sacrifice to appease his anger over the behavior of his children on earth defies all reason.  Even more impossible is the idea that he would send his precious Son to suffer torture to fulfill some sacrificial need.  If you told a little child such a story, they would look at you like you had lost your mind.  Truly, the whole idea that God sent Jesus to die so he, God, could forgive mankind is contradictory to the entire Truth of Christ's life and teachings.  Divine Love created a perfect idea, a perfect man named Jesus, not to die for our sins, but to show us that sin, disease, and death have no power over us and to teach us how to overcome these errors of thought and action.
So on this Easter, remember, along with his loving sacrifice, the divinely inspired lesson Jesus died to reveal to us.  His proof of life beyond the grave helps us to face our own lives - and our deaths - from an entirely different perspective.  The Easter message is one of redemption and resurrection, not just for the man, Jesus, but for all of us throughout all ages.  Be glad, give thanks, and REJOICE!