It's all in the timing

Did you know that Easter falls at the end of March this year? I wonder how many times we have already heard someone say, or even said it ourselves, ‘Easter is early this year’.

As we are all aware, the date of Easter changes from year to year and relatively Easter isn’t that early in 2024. The date of Easter changes because it is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21 March, which coincides with the equinox and Northern Hemisphere spring. Which means the earliest it can be is 22 March (which last occurred in 1818) and the latest it can be is 25 April. And if you are interested in knowing when it will again fall on 22 March, I am pretty sure none of us will be around to experience it, because if the Lord should tarry, it will be the year 2285.

So why all this discussion on changes in dates or timing I hear you ask? Well because it is interesting how ‘time’ is linked to the Easter story. Without being able to list all the allusions to ‘time’ in the Easter story, let me remind you of three. Firstly, there is the resurrection of Jesus on the third day. Secondly, the Easter story begins with timing issues; needing to have the crucifixions completed before the Sabbath began (Friday evening).

However, the third allusion to ‘time’ is even more profound. While not found in any of the passion narratives, Paul refers to it in Romans 5:6, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly”.

Why that time some 2000 years ago? Why not earlier? Why not later? Some might try and give a precise reason as to why it needed to be that time in history. For me, the point that Paul is trying to make is where I focus. Simply, that Christ would come, and Christ would die, and Christ would rise again at that time because that is when God planned it.

We can call the first Easter the right time, because it was part of God’s unchanging plan from before creation. Paul reminds us of that so we might have confidence in our salvation. When all seems lost in the sense that we are powerless and ungodly, God acts!

It is that unchanging message of Easter, God’s plan of salvation, that we continue to proclaim across rural, regional, and remote parts of Australia. And while the date of Easter might change, the message doesn’t. The simple message is that at just the right time Christ died. Pray that in God’s good timing, many more fellow Australians will come to know the unchanging hope of Easter and have their eternity changed forever.

Every blessing this Easter.