The Wager of Easter
The day after Palm Sunday, the apostles must have been on top of the world after Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem and proof to them that they, the apostles, hitch their wagon to the right guy. They gave up everything to follow him and the question to them must have been what was the final reward. There was even discussion who would sit next to Jesus but by Friday and as Jesus hanged on the cross, they were in hiding. Peter denied Jesus Christ three times and now all of them were no longer safe as the follower of “the man” who was hanging on the Cross with the message on the cross placed by Pontius Pilate, “The King of the Jew.”
On Easter Sunday and days afterwards, Jesus appeared to the apostles and followers before ascending into heaven and when the Holy Spirits appeared to the apostles, they regain their courage and finally understood what Jesus wanted of them, to preach the word and moving through the Roman Empire, starting a new Religion.
Looking for a new Messiah to raise up Israel and overthrow the Romans, they found something different, they brought the message to all corners of the world. They conquered an Empire though the power of the Lord.
For the Apostles, they suffered for their faith and when they went out to the world, they were aware they would not be rewarded with power or wealth but something more. They talked about the Kingdom of Heaven and allowed a whole world a chance of eternal life with Christ. Most of them died horrible deaths and Christians themselves suffered immensely in the first three centuries following the Resurrection. For Christians, the appeal of Christianity was more than things of this world, money, power and status and the cost was their lives here on earth but eternal life in heaven. Early Christians believed in Pascal’s wager, an argument by the Blaise Pascal, a seventh century French mathematician, philosopher and theologian who wager that a person should adopt a lifestyle consistent with existence of God for if the person is right and God exist, he or she has eternal life and there is no God, finite losses including possible loss of wealth or pleasures. If you don’t believe in God, and God exist, you lose more than the sacrifice of wealth or pleasures that you enjoyed n life.
Early Christians gave up more than pleasures or wealth but as Christianity became the official religion of Roman Empire, the risk of martyrdom cease but the wager continues as Pascal’s wager of living a life as a believer or not still exist. Deny God means permanent Hell and believe in God gives you the opportunity of eternal life. Jesus died for our sins and open the door of heaven for us all. The wager that many Christians bet their lives on still exist.