Easter is the holiest day on the Christian calendar. But, did you know there were times when even Easter represented conflict in the church. There was a great disagreement in the early church on what was to be celebrated and when.
Very early on, the churches in the East identified with the Apostle John. After all, John spent most of his time around Jerusalem, Ephesus, and on the island of Patmos. Jesus died on Passover, and that was the emphasis of John’s celebration. The Eastern churches followed this practice celebrating Passover no matter on what day of the week it fell.
The Western church looked to Peter and Paul as their examples since they were icons of the Western churches. Peter and Paul were said to have emphasized Christ’s resurrection the first Sunday after Passover since Christ rose on a Sunday. As a result, the Eastern and Western churches seldom celebrated on the same day nor did they celebrate the same thing. The Eastern churches celebrated Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. The Western churches celebrated His glorious resurrection. This difference in practice caused each side to argue for the virtue of their own view.
At first, both sides used the Jewish calendar to arrive at a date for Passover. As the church as a whole grew to be anti-Semitic, the use of the Julian calendar replaced the Jewish calendar, so the Passover dates were often miscalculated.
Now we need to remember the Eastern and Western churches were not divided at the time but were seen as one body. So, these differing views grew into a division of serious proportions within the body. In 154 a.d., Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John, traveled to Rome to try and persuade the Bishop there that the Eastern Passover celebration should be the universal observance. The Bishop of Rome, Anicetus, disagreed, and the two sections of the church continued with their own celebrations for years each confident the other was wrong.
Eventually, tempers flared, and around 195 a.d., Victor, Bishop of Rome at the time, wanted to excommunicate the entire Eastern Church over the issue of Easter. He called them heretics. Synods were held and letters sent to bishops in the West asking for advice and consent. Ireneaus, Bishop of Lyon in Gaul, wrote Victor asking him to be reasonable. The consensus of the Western bishops was sympathetic with Irenaeus’ opinion. Victor decided to back off, and the matter was tabled.
In 325 a.d., a council was called at a town in Asia Minor, Nicaea. Many things were settled there including the calculation for Easter. Years prior to the council the church had thrown out the Jewish way of calculating Passover and decided to arrive at it themselves. The calculation is the one given above. Easter would be celebrated the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox. The Eastern practice of celebrating Good Friday as the holiest day ended. Easter was now universally to be celebrated on a Sunday. Of course, the new calculations depended on the Julian calendar. But, that didn’t put an end to the issue.
Near the end of the sixth century, missionaries to Britain saw the churches there were calculating the date for Easter using a new calendar, the Gregorian calendar. The Western church liked and adopted this new method of dating while the Eastern churches continued with the practice of using the Julian calendar as they do to this day. Once again, the two sides would often celebrate on different dates.
In 1054, the Eastern and Western churches split becoming the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. They didn’t split over the Easter controversy but over the Bishop of Rome getting too big for his britches.
The Eastern Orthodox churches continue use of the Julian calendar for their calculation. As a result, the dates of Easter are usually different East to West. In 2024, for instance, the Catholics and Protestants will both celebrate Easter on March 31st while the Orthodox will celebrate it on May 5th. The following year both will celebrate it on the same day.
Why is this important?
It is important for us to understand it really doesn’t matter exactly the date of Christ’s death or the date of His resurrection. The important thing is that He gave His life for us and rose again showing His power over death.
I think this also shows us we can have differences in churches and still be one body. True, the East and West eventually split, but it was over a fleshly issue, a power grab, not over doctrine. There are major doctrines which must be agreed upon: the trinity, the bodily resurrection of Christ, salvation by grace alone, and the deity of Christ. There are also doctrines where we can differ. A popular saying among theologians goes like this, “In essentials unity, in non-essentials, liberty, but in all things, charity.” I think that’s a principal we can live by.
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