The earliest celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection, which we commemorate at Easter, was probably a weekly event. The earliest Christians met on a Sunday, the day of resurrection, to remember Jesus’ death and to celebrate his resurrection. The Gospels narrate that the resurrection took place early on a Sunday morning, so that was clearly the best time to recall the events.
As time went by, Christians began to set aside a time each year when Jesus’ death and resurrection could be especially celebrated.
But the question was, when should this be? The most obvious time was to connect it with the Jewish Passover, a time in the Jewish calendar which the Gospels say is when Jesus’ death and resurrection took place. By this time, the Passover was held according to the cycles of the moon, and so varied during a period of around four weeks in early spring.
Eventually, probably in the third century, the early Christians developed a scheme for calculating in advance when Easter should be celebrated. They wanted it to be related to the full moon, as Passover was, but how early in the calendar year could Easter be? One key decision that some early Christians made, probably in Alexandria in the 5th century, is that Easter Sunday should always be celebrated after March 21, with the actual date being determined by when the full moon occurs on or after March 21. Easter was to be observed on a Sunday after the full moon, so the earliest possible date is March 22. I am very grateful to a PhD student in Classics at the University of Otago for making this clear.
Of course this was all debated and decided in the northern hemisphere, where all Christians lived at the time. Why did they decide on this date in March? March 21 is the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere. On that day, over a 24-hour period, day and night are roughly equal in length — there are 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness.
On March 22, the period of light is longer than the period of darkness. And with the full moon occurring too, that time of the full moon meant that this was the first occasion in the year when there was light for a whole 24 hour day. The world is flooded with light.
Through Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection on the third day, God conquered darkness and death. In Jesus’ death and resurrection, God had actually entered into and shared human darkness and even death, but then in resurrection, light and life had overcome darkness and death. What better way to celebrate this than to do so at a time when light was visibly conquering darkness in the world around us. Easter was a celebration of light!
The way John’s Gospel tells the story of the resurrection emphasises this. John 20:1 reads: "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb." The resurrection of Jesus had clearly already happened and the tomb was empty. So the resurrection occurred "while it was still dark".
In the midst of darkness, resurrection light breaks through. Resurrection life conquers death.
John has a very similar theme near the beginning of his Gospel. John 1:5 reads: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." The light is the light of Jesus, the light of the world, shining in the darkness of the world. That the darkness did not overcome the light points to Jesus’ resurrection. The darkness of death could not hold Jesus — and God overcame darkness and death in raising Jesus to new life. But the Greek word translated "overcome" also means "comprehend" — and John clearly played on this ambiguity: the darkness did not comprehend or understand the light. The light was something powerful, new, and transformative breaking into our world. The darkness could not understand and could not counter it.
It is not as if the darkness of our world has disappeared. I hardly need to point to all the signs of darkness around us. But the death and resurrection of Jesus shows that there is transforming light present in our world too. And the promise of Jesus’ death and resurrection is that darkness has not had the final say, and will not have the final say.
The light of Christ has come and continues to shine. It is the recognition of this that lies at the heart of Easter faith.
• Paul Trebilco is Professor of New Testament Studies in the Theology Programme, University of Otago.
