Today is Easter Sunday, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. Countless sermons preached today no doubt drew the inevitable parallel between the promise of new life offered by the resurrection and the emergence of new life so abundantly manifest in this season of spring. The co-occurence of the resurrection of Christ with the beginning of spring is, I am confident, more than just a happy coincidence.*
A major reason for this assertion is the fact that the timing of the Jewish Passover celebration, which set the stage for the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, is tied into the historic events that it commemorates -- the deliverance of the Jewish nation from Egypt under the leadership of Moses (Exodus 12:42). It is abundantly clear from the narrative in Exodus that the this event was entirely dependent upon the intervention of God-- from the preservation and preparation of Moses to lead His people to the ten plagues which led to the end of their bondage. The timing of the Passover events and its subsequent commemoration, therefore, was in the hands of God and He, in His infinite wisdom, saw fit to bring this to pass in the spring.
The Passover celebration was not just the historic context for the arrest, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus (e.g. Matthew 26:2), but Christians from the time of Christ see in it deep symbolic significance foreshadowing its fulfillment in Christ (I Corinthinans 5:7) and view the timing of Christ's death and resurrection during the Passover celebration as further confirmation of the significance of the relationship between the two events. The sacrifice of a spotless lamb to protect those who partake of it and take refuge under its blood from the judgement of God is a clear picture of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the one John the Baptist called "the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29).
But I will go one step further. There are those, perhaps, who would explain the celebration of Easter as the result of the hope engendered by spring. However, for me it is quite reasonable to believe rather that from the creation of the earth God intended spring to engender the hope of new life as a witness to the resurrection to come. Peter says that Jesus, the "sinless, spotless Lamb of God," was chosen "for this purpose long before the world began" and speaks in this context of His resurrection from the dead (I Peter 1:18-21, New Living Translation). This was in God's mind when He created the world, so just as God prepared the way for the events of Easter through the events of the Passover, I believe He designed the whole rhythm of summer-fall-winter-spring as a yearly testimony to the possibility and promise of new life in Christ.
