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Johan Leman, 8 April 2023

On Easter, Christians celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead and that this means that humans are also eligible to rise from the dead. Christians usually situate the death and resurrection of Jesus in April of the year 33 of our era.

Specifically, the resurrection is described by Christians as the rising for a spiritual life after the death of a physical body. This rising for a spiritual life is called being taken up with God, who is called a great source of love, traces of which are found during earthly life. Believing Christians assume that Jesus was recognised by God, not just as a prophet, but as the perfect radiance of God on earth.

Something similar concerning Jesus is also found among Muslims, yet there are important differences. According to the Koran, Jesus did not die on the cross, but someone else has taken his place. Jesus himself is then taken up into heaven, though, only as an important prophet.

Back to Easter. Of course, there is also Jewish Easter (Passover), this year from 6 to 13 April. In a sense, this can be called a founding myth for Judaism. To the extent that this is a spiritual-messianic interpretation of this Judaism, we also wish our Jewish friends the best of luck in celebrating their Easter. And in each of its interpretatations, we wish them surely peace!

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