Easter About a Savior Who Changes Lives

In a little over a week, millions will pour into America’s churches, making Sunday, Apr. 5, the biggest day of the year. It’s what some wags call the “Super Bowl of church attendance.”

Yet, those who are simply putting in an annual appearance or just bringing the kids for an Easter egg hunt are likely to go home as disappointed as they were about life before the day began.

Easter’s significance comes from a relationship with the Savior whose resurrection stirs adulation, worship, and worldwide acclaim.

This despite the modern atheists, naysayers, and deconstructionists who are doing their best to eliminate any mention of Jesus in public life.

A Day of Significance

While Easter opponents will call it a myth, the day will hold special meaning for prison minister Wayne Antusas.

He spent 23 years behind bars for killing two teenage girls in Chicago in 1995, but was set free in 2021 when Illinois appellate judges tossed his sentence.

Attorneys from Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Conviction spent years arguing that Antusas (17 at the time of the killings and 18 when arrested) had not been involved in the crime.

I read about the Portage, Indiana man last month in the Chicago Tribune, although the story originated with its sister publication, the Post-Tribune of Gary, Indiana.

What I found so remarkable is that, after spending more than two decades behind bars, Antusas now willingly goes into the Westville Correctional Center.

He visits the northwestern Indiana prison five days a week to share his faith with inmates. He has also incorporated Builder of Men Ministries, which received nonprofit status last year.

According to Post-Tribune reporter Amy Lavalley, the ministry runs programs for inmates to help them turn their lives around. And, make them better husbands, fathers, and community members when released.

“‘We believe that through a relationship with Jesus Christ, these men will overcome gangs and drugs and become better fathers and help the community,’ Antusas said. “The men, he said, can be examples instead of pariahs,” Lavalley wrote.

“‘Save the man, save the family,’ he said.”

Authentic Conversion

Antusas’s story shows how everyone is equal at the cross. In the Cook County Jail, two months after his arrest, two Black Christian men started spiritually challenging him.

Antusas knew about God, having been raised in a Catholic church on Chicago’s Southwest Side. But now he saw a need to get serious about his Creator, which he told Lavalley marked the beginning of life change.

“He put a blanket down on his cell floor and got down on his knees,” she wrote. “Tears streaming down his face, he said, Antusas asked God to forgive him for the sins he had committed, including smoking and drinking.

“He got off his knees: ‘I felt like 1,000 pounds came off my shoulders.’”

What followed that emotional moment of conversion shows the reality of his experience. During his incarceration, as he moved to various facilities, he found his calling leading Bible studies, devotional times, and worship services.

At the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, he turned his cell into a mini-sanctuary full of Bible references and books. One day, he baptized 30 men.

Today at Westville, he has granted more than 800 certificates to inmates who completed his Bible classes, counted more than 120 conversions, and baptized more than 100 men.

For every skeptic who says Jesus isn’t real, there’s a person like Wayne Antusus who stands as a living testimony to the Savior. Happy Easter.