Three crosses on a lonely hill,
A thief on either side,
And, in between, the Son of God...
How wide the gulf—how wide!

Yet one thief spanned it with the words,
“Oh Lord, remember me”;
The other scoffed and turned aside
To lost eternity.

Forsaken is the hilltop now,
And all the crosses gone,
But in believing hearts of men
The center cross lives on.

And still, as when these sentinels
First met earth’s wondering view,
The presence of the Lord divides—
Upon which side are you?  

– Helen Franzee Bower

Easter – Setting the Date part 1 of 4

Easter Sunday is the date of the annual celebration of Christ's resurrection. In the church calendar, Easter Sunday is the point of reference from which the entire church calendar year of movable events is calculated. Easter always occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. The date of Easter can be as early as March 22 or as late as April 25. The aim of the Easter Dating Method is to maintain, for each Easter Sunday, the same season of the year and the same relationship to the preceding astronomical full moon that occurred at the time of his resurrection in 30 A.D.

The date for Easter has not always been calculated in this way. In the first two centuries A.D., in Asia Minor, Christians celebrated Easter on the third day after the first full moon of spring. It was always the third day, regardless of the day of the week on which this occurred. This date was based on the Jewish Passover. The Jewish month consists of one lunar phase of 28 days beginning and ending with the full moon. The full moon, therefore, always occurs on the fourteenth of every month of the Jewish calendar. Passover is the fourteenth of the month of Nisan. Not all Quartodecimans chose to celebrate Easter on the same day, some celebrated Easter on Passover day, some three days after Passover. According to the Gospels the Last Supper took place on Passover Eve and the Resurrection three days later. For this reason Easter was celebrated independent of any particular weekday. The followers of this dating for Easter were known as the Quartodecimans (quartodecimus = 14, for 14th of Nissan).

Sources: The Dictionary of Bible and Religion, William Gentz | The Bible Almanac, White
| Easter a Pictorial Pilgrimage - Pierre Benoit |

Easter Quotations

Suffering inflicted on Jesus by others had the appearance at least of being involuntary. The sufferings of Gethsemane, deep in his soul, could touch him only because he willed it, to give us courage in our own fears, to set us an example, to merit for us the grace needed in our own interior conflicts.

       — RALPH GORMAN, The Last Hours of Jesus, 1960

Clarence Seidenspinner, Great Protestant Festivals

Martin Luther