A few days ago, I hit this wall. The wall was called “Easter eggs make me want to barf.” I was standing there, going through Easter eggs when I started feeling sick and looking at how many Easter eggs we had made me want to throw up. It was a crazy strong reaction to little plastic eggs.
I started thinking about Christmas, because those are the two big holidays at church, you know?
And I started thinking about how Christians treat Christmas. We post things about JESUS IS THE REASON and KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS and stuff like that. We, as a very generalized group of people, are really great at making a big fuss about people remembering Jesus at Christmas.
So I’m standing there, hating Easter eggs with all of my being, and I dropped some and thought
BUT WHAT ABOUT EASTER?
No SERIOUSLY.
That is the real first day of the rest of our lives, because even though it would have never happened.. the death of Jesus wasn’t really the big powerful moment in the story of our redemption. Because Jesus was dead.
Sometimes we forget about Holy Saturday. We get caught up on being dark and quiet and emotional on Good Friday, and then we go about our business that Saturday and then Sunday we all dress nice, go to church and sing songs of victory and celebration. But Holy Saturday deserves a moment, because we all experience Holy Saturdays in our lives. In life, we are going to have days when we feel alone, abandoned and wondering if Jesus is who he says he is, because he’ll be gone. I wrote about that before, so I’m just going to stop the tangent here.
But then JESUS CAME BACK TO LIFE.
Jesus may be the reason for Christmas, and I think it is cool to praise little baby Jesus God with us infant king. But seriously, how can we so easily overlook the day that little baby Jesus God with us infant king DIED and then CAME BACK TO LIFE. He stopped breathing, and he was dead and people were crying and going back to life before Jesus, and then THERE HE WAS, WALKING AROUND AND TALKING TO PEOPLE.
The man came back to life.
The disciples never really recovered from that. Their lives were radically changed, and many died for the sake of the truth of Christ’s resurrection.
And we celebrate with stupid Easter eggs and candy and bunnies.
I get it. It’s an opportunity to have fun – and Jesus went to parties, so I know he’d be down – and it’s an opportunity to show love and spend time with people. But may we never, not ever, for a moment, on Easter or Holy Saturday or Normal Time forget that Jesus came back to life after he died, and that is the reason for our being.
As I pondered all of this, God began to open my heart-eyes. After Jesus came back to life, he didn’t stand around telling people that he was alive. He just showed up, and people put it together. He continued being Immanuel – God WITH us. He gathered with people, walked with people, spoke to people and lived with people for 40 more days before returning to Heaven. If being with people was a good enough declaration of His resurrection for Jesus, then being with people, even if it means dealing with a bunch of stupid easter eggs, is good enough for me too.
But man, I will be happy to be done with all of this.
We’re still in the bunny and eggs part because our daughter isn’t even old enough to understand that. She just knows I’m putting her in a foofy dress and she’ll be excited all day, haha! I want to make sure that bunnies aren’t her first thought when it comes to Easter in the future though.
a foofy dress makes anyone excited!! it’s good and exciting that you know and want to make sure she knows that easter is more about eggs and rabbits. it is a part of it, just like santa and trees and lights, but it is not the heartbeat of the holiday. <3 keep it up!