By CHIEDU OKOYE

WE are in a critical time in Nigeria and this has cast a pall of despondence over the Nigerian landscape and on Nigerians. Today, Nigerians are  bedevilled by excruciating economic hardship and security challenges. For example, the recent killing of 17 soldiers, who were on a peace-keeping mission in a town in Delta State, and the daily occurrence of homicide in Nigeria, have indexed Nigeria as a country in the firm grip of severe security challenges. And the acute food shortages which we are experiencing in Nigeria have been causing millions of Nigerians to go to bed on empty stomachs each night. So it is not unexpected that a funereal atmosphere will pervade the Nigerian landscape during this year’s Easter  celebration. 

Easter, which is less popular than Christmas, is the time when we commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is our Messiah and Saviour. Jesus Christ was a great religious figure, who walked the earth more than two thousand years ago. He was prominent during his stay on earth because of the many miracles He performed and His revolutionary religious teachings, which have had a great influence on the human race, over the years.

Though He is the Son of God, He was born in a lowly manger to human parents: Joseph, a poor carpenter; and Mary, a virgin. He achieved greatness through his performance of uncommon deeds and espousal of religious teachings which were premised on the themes of love and inheritance of God’s kingdom. Jesus Christ, who is part of the triune God, lived for mere 33 years here on earth. 

During His earthly ministry, Jesus Christ healed people with different infirmities, resurrected dead people to life, fed a multitude of people with five loaves of bread and two fish(es), walked on the sea, and calmed tempestuous seas. The people marveled at the great miracles which He performed. He had 12 Apostles and several disciples.

However, Jesus Christ’s revolutionary teachings and preachings which had the potentialities of upturning the moral and political order of the day in Israel didn’t sit well with the Jewish rulers at that time. Consequently, His preachings and teachings set Him on a collision course with the Jewish rulers who were enraged by the claim that He is the Son of God. He was arrested and put to trial for allegedly proclaiming Himself the king of the Jews.

And He was found guilty of the charges they levelled against Him. So He was impaled on the cross and crucified between two robbers. Incredibly, and ironically, too, the people watching the spectacle of His crucifixion earlier demanded that Barabbas, a robber, be released for them, and not Jesus Christ.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was predicted by Jesus Christ Himself when He talked about pulling down the synagogue and re-building it within three days. Though He had knowledge about His own death, He did nothing to prevent it from happening in order that the Scriptures would be fulfilled. Jesus Christ died on Good Friday and resurrected on Easter Sunday, which was the third day of His death.

Jesus Christ died that we may live, as it’s written in the Bible. And He paid the supreme sacrificial price for our sins by accepting to die for the remission of our sins. We should not forget that we inherited the sins of our forebears, Adam and Eve. But Jesus Christ became the ransom for our sins. He died on the cross so that we may live.

So today, if we exercise our faith in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, we shall be able to surmount our problems. And death shall have no powers over us. Because, even though we are dead, we shall still live. And we shall enter the kingdom of God upon our demise if we had obeyed God’s commands and lived according to His sovereign will.

However, it is saddening that today’s Christians do not set store by the teachings of Jesus Christ, which are in the Synoptic Gospels of the Holy Bible. Our deeds and utterances do not portray us as Christians or followers of Jesus Christ, anymore. Ironically, the violators of Jesus Christ’s precepts and commandments are the same people, who do make out that they are followers of Jesus Christ.

But we are warned in the Bible to beware of the “wolves in sheep’s clothing”. It is stated in the Bible that false prophets shall arise in the last days to mislead the people. But it behoves us to have the spirit of discernment so as to make distinctions between the true followers of Jesus Christ and the deceivers. So, I urge us to use the Easter period to ponder on Christ’s pilgrimage on earth, His sacrificial death on the cross, man’s mortality, and what awaits man in the hereafter. These should agitate and concentrate our minds during this Easter period and beyond.

However, the Bible, which is the Holy Book of the Christians, should be studied by both Christians and non-Christians on a daily basis for guidance. The Bible provides answers to most questions bordering on existential matters and others, which agitate our minds. Such questions include, but are not limited to these: Are heaven and earth realities? Are human souls indestructible? What is the nature of God? More so, the Easter period offers us the opportunity to reconnect to God, the only true source of life, and the ultimate reality to which we will return when we die. Therefore, we should re-dedicate ourselves to the service of God and obey God’s commands in order that we may enter God’s kingdom when we die. And if we live in accordance with God’s will and obey His commandments, the earth will be an oasis of peace.

So as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I exhort everybody to exercise faith in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, who is the incarnation of God’s word, and the only son of God, who chose to become the ransom for our sins. We should remember that we inherited our sins from our first parents, Adam and Eve.

From the foregoing, the symbolisms of our commemoration of Christ’s death and resurrection should not be lost on us. And the critical and perilous time in which we are living doesn’t call for bingeing on drinks, gormandising food, and engaging in illicit sexual liaisons in the name of the celebration of Easter. Rather, this Easter period should be a time for us to meditate on God’s words and make amends in our behaviours.

The hunger that stalks us on a daily basis and the constant wastage of human lives in our country commend us to live righteous lives so as to inherit God’s kingdom when we die. 

I wish all happy Easter celebration.

*Okoye, a poet, wrote from Uruowulu-Obosi Anambra State