"if Christ has not risen, then your faith is vain."

I have noted before that in reality, this is Christmas. What we celebrate as Easter is in fact the day that Christ was born.

Prior to this day Jesus was just a man, a man with a truly profound philosophy, but a man just the same. It is only through the Resurrection that Jesus the man, the Jew, becomes The Christ, the Savoir.

Had it not been for the events of this day his disciples might have continued to espouse and spread  the teachings of Jesus, but to what end?

Given the historical times in which God chose to bring forth His Son into the world, it is doubtful that the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth would have had much impact on the world.

The chances are pretty good that without the Resurrection, Jesus and his teachings would not even be a footnote in history. As the Apostle Paul noted to the early church, "if Christ has not risen then your faith is vain."

Without a risen Christ there is no Christianity. Period.

Without the Resurrection there is just another charismatic man who led on those seeking some greater truth until the establishment reminded them of their truth.

Without the Resurrection, Christianity would have died with Jesus.

So Easter is far more than a Holy Day, it is in fact "The Holy Day."  There is no more sacred day in Christianity, and if we truly do believe in the promise of Christ and the Resurrection, there is no more sacred day in human history.

This, after all, is the day when man(kind) became eternal. This is the day where life ever after began, but will never end.

This day, some two millennium ago, was the day that God chose to reveal Himself to us in a way that could leave no doubt that there is a God. Only an eternal God could bring forth eternity to a temporal man.

With this day, God proved beyond doubt that there is a God. Not through an act of subjugation or force, but with truest act of Godliness there could ever be, an act of love.

God through Christ was telling us, His creation, be not afraid, for I am with you and you are with Me always. Be not afraid there is no end.

Easter is the end of the end. God through Christ was telling us that there is no end.

God through the most sinful of his servants, David, reminds us over and over in the Psalms, "His Mercy endures forever" and "His love endures forever."

If His mercy endures forever, and His love endures forever, where is the end?

"Let every man be a liar, but God is true."

If nothing else remember this. For us lowly humans forever began on Easter with the birth of Christ two thousand years ago and will never end.

Paul

8 And last of all, he was seen also by me, as if I were someone born at the wrong time.
9 For I am the least of the Apostles. I am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.
10 But, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace in me has not been empty, since I have labored more abundantly than all of them. Yet it is not I, but the grace of God within me.
11 For whether it is I or they: so we preach, and so you have believed.
12 Now if Christ is preached, that he rose again from the dead, how is it that some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not risen.
14 And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is useless, and your faith is also useless.
15 Then, too, we would be found to be false witnesses of God, because we would have given testimony against God, saying that he had raised up Christ, when he had not raised him up, if, indeed, the dead do not rise again.
16 For if the dead do not rise again, then neither has Christ risen again.
17 But if Christ has not risen, then your faith is vain; for you would still be in your sins.
18 Then, too, those who have fallen asleep in Christ would have perished.
19 If we have hope in Christ for this life only, then we are more miserable than all men.
20 But now Christ has risen again from the dead, as the first-fruits of those who sleep.

1 Corinthians 15:8-20