All the festivals are great, very great. But of them all, the greatest is Easter.

An arch of religious festivals

Picture the festivals as forming a stone arch, with each festival as one of the stones in the arch. Rising on one side is Advent, then Christmas and Epiphany, Lent, and Holy Week with Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. On top is the keystone of the arch, Easter. The other side of the arch has Ascension Day, Pentecost, and the many Sundays after Pentecost.

What a marvelous arch! The stones are reminders of the major events in the life of the Lord Jesus, the Eternal Word Made Flesh. The arch as it stands complete tells us: “God has come to your rescue. He caused his eternally begotten Son to become incarnate, born of the virgin Mary. He lived a holy life, yet he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, died, and was buried. He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven. He did this to purchase and win you from sin, death, and the power of the devil, that you might be his own, live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as he has risen from death and lives and rules eternally. Your salvation is complete in Christ. You are declared righteous. You are an heir of heaven.”

What a blessed experience for us each year to go from Christmas to Easter to Pentecost as we worship in our congregations. Every stone in the arch, every festival, reminds us of the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation that are ours through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The keystone of that arch

But the greatest of these festivals is Easter.  Its message is astounding: “But God raised him from the dead” (Acts 13:30). Jesus’ resurrection is the keystone in the arch. What happens when you remove the keystone? The arch falls, and all its stones become a heap of rubble.

But how can Easter be called the keystone? Did the church somehow make it that important? No, it is the keystone because God made it so. Remove Easter and the other festivals of the church year are useless and meaningless. St. Paul by inspiration wrote: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith . . . Your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:14,17). The inspired Scriptures make Easter the keystone.