What does Resurrection Sunday represent?

In a few days we celebrate Resurrection Sunday (known by others as "Easter"-although I never use that term)...but while I was going through some columns on WND (World News Digest), I came upon one that caught my interest: "Are you a Easter hypocrite?" by Jane Chastain http://www.wnd.com/2012/04/are-you-an-easter-hypocrite/

And in this column she mentions that the average person who "celebrates" this time spends $145.28 per person. Some of it will be for candy and food, but most of it is being spent on new clothes for the Resurrection Sunday service. And this line I found the most condemning: "Today, in the run-up to Easter, most of us spend a lot more time on the physical preparation than we do on the spiritual."

And that got me to thinking-This is the most important time of year for those of us who call ourselves believers. This is the time where starting Thursday; we remember what Jesus went through for us. First, the evening Seder of Passover, where the Lord celebrated the release of the Jews from Egypt and the freedom that was brought by it....Just think about it, I wonder if the Lord was thinking about the freedom that He was about to accomplish in just a few hours...

Then after the Seder, going to the Garden of Gethsemane (Gat-Sh’manim in the Hebrew) the place of the olive-press where olives were pressed and squeezed to make oil-being there in that Garden, asking that the cup of sacrifice be taken away, but saying "Not My will, but Yours be done" and being under such stress that He sweated blood...

Then the arrest, the false trials, the scourging (I would recommend seeing "The Passion of the Christ" once again to see how violent the scourging was), the crown of thorns, the jeering of the crowd, etc.; and then having to take that cross (the execution stake) in the weakened state that He was in;  enduring the insults and mocking (causing psychological pain to be added to the physical pain), and then the most famous words in all of the human language: "It is finished!"-the price for sin paid for all time....

Then commending His Spirit to His Father-giving up His physical life-being buried in a borrowed tomb.-thought by everyone to be dead forever (forgetting that He said that in three days He would rise from the dead); then that glorious morning, when the women went to the tomb and found it empty and ran back to tell the disciples the news that He had risen.....

I know many of us have “celebrated” this time for many years and maybe it has gotten to the point that it has become ‘routine’…but I ask “Why?” If this time of year is the most important of the year (and it is), then why are we spending more time on physical preparation (which is just for appearance and doesn’t matter in the long run) than on the spiritual? Remember that through the cross we have PERMANENT victory over death, hell and the grave! Remember that through the cross, we have forgiveness of sins!  Remember that through the cross, any plans that the devil had of final victory were destroyed ONCE AND FOR ALL!

Think about all this and then ask yourself: “Am I really psyched up (spiritually speaking) to celebrate that this time of year REALLY represents?” And if your answer is no, examine yourself and get yourself into that mindset that truly understands the significance of what the Lord did for all of us and get out of the mindset of trying to impress others on how we look on the outside….