Ever wonder why Easter sucks as a holiday?
Thanksgiving is great – food, backyard football, food, naps, the family you like, etc.
Halloween is superb – dressing up, candy, scaring kids at the door, The Great Pumpkin, etc.
And Christmas, of course, couldn’t be better – Jolly ole St. Nick, Silent Night, bags of presents and mushy mandarin oranges.
But Easter…well, Easter just doesn’t have the same market share. You can’t commercialize Christ on a cross and the bunny just hasn’t panned out that well. That may be why Easter isn’t as big a deal in the malls and on the dazzling screens. Because the mystery of Christ’s death (and the brutal and wonderful way he reunites us with God) is simply too powerful to be co-opted by the media and capitalized on by investors.
Easter is about something so mysterious it cannot be reduced to trinkets and charms and still feel like Easter. Easter is about something so incredible it cannot be appreciated properly without incredible study and devotion. Easter is about something so transcendent it cannot be gotten hold of – not wholly, even with an understanding that it concerns a past action, with present context, and future consequence.
Yes – Easter is about something that happened. Jesus of Nazareth really was an historical person who really was executed by the Roman Empire for sedition and whose followers really did proclaim that he had been resurrected into a new body and who founded the Church on the basis of that belief.
Yes – Easter is about something that is still happening. Christ’s followers are still proclaiming that there is a force stronger than Death, more powerful than the grave, and that force – that resurrection power – is at work in the world through God the Holy Spirit.
Yes – Easter is about something that will happen. It is about the future hope of Christ- followers who understand that there will come a time when every wrong is put back to rights, when God’s Kingdom will permeate and transform this world into a new one and that we will also received new bodies just as Christ did.
Sound too weird? Too fantastical?
That’s fine – you’re welcome to continue petting bunnies and sucking on eggs – but I have to caution you not to suspend belief before you willingly suspend disbelief. Explore the historical and archaeological proofs for the resurrection, as well as the social and interpersonal ramifications of Jesus’ return.
Trust me when I tell you – we’re just scratching the surface here, But we live in an itchy world. And I think this may bring some relief.