Easter: The Moveable Feast
Easter celebrates the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. The death
and resurrection of Christ represent the temporal manifestation of an
ecclesiastical gift of grace. Faced with
the perfection of God, the imperfection of man condemns us to eternal
death. But, God used the sacrifice of
his son, Jesus Christ, to atone for the sins of all mankind. If we accept that sacrifice through faith in
its reality, we are given eternal forgiveness.
To
the world and the worldly, this seems almost too easy. We could live the high life, violate every
commandment, indulge every vice and still know that we face no eternal
retribution. Our earthly partners may find
us to be reprehensible, vile, even criminal, but out Heavenly Father would
still welcome us with open arms because Jesus has paid the penalty. What a sweet deal! This could be the ultimate, “get out of jail
free” card. However, this concept of
Grace, undeserved mercy, starts bending your mind. It touches your heart, and, ultimately, frees
your soul. Now the good that you do is
motivated by love and gratitude, not fear.
There is no way that a person can accept God’s gift of Grace without
being touched by it. This makes Easter a weighty and wonderful
celebration.
For non-believers the quaint and worldly customs
surrounding all religious holidays may cloud the religious skies. For a theologically heavy event like Easter
that confusion is both easy and insidious.
Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first
full moon, after the first day of spring, seemingly making it more astronomical
than celestial. Christ was crucified
after observing Passover, so the holiday is tied to the Jewish calendar. It is actually a much longer festival than
just a single day. It represents the 40
days preceding Easter (Lent and Holy week) and the 50 day period after Easter
(leading up to Jesus’ ascension into Heaven).
Every part of this time is commemorative of some important aspect of
Jesus life and ministry. At the same
time that the theological meanings of Easter are thinned and dispersed over
better than two months, the temporal traditions of Easter are concentrated in
eggs and bunnies.
The
name, “Easter” may be an adaption of the name, “Eostre” a Teutonic goddess of
spring and fertility. Certainly with all
of the chicks, eggs and bunnies we have rolling around the Easter scene that
would be a reasonable association to make.
Eggs have been dyed and decorated for hundreds of years starting in India by
Zoroastrians. They were adopted by the
early church to symbolize the empty tomb of Christ as well as resurrection of
life. Easter bunnies (hares to the old
world Christians) were symbols of both fertility and, oddly, eggs. This may be because hares nested on the
ground as did many birds common to the same areas. In any eventuality those egg carrying bunnies
made it into the religious celebration. So
between the Jewish calendar, Pagan goddesses and far Eastern traditions, we
have a Christian holiday.
There is a lesson here for those who have eyes to see,
ears to hear and minds to think. The
early church had a core message that transcended all temporal disputes. It spread by adapting to the customs of its
constituency. The Gospel was too big to
be lost to small arguments. The breadth
of the goal could handle small course corrections.
Christianity
is the biggest idea this world has ever known.
How else does the preaching of a man with no family, no money and no
power become a world encompassing credo?
Live the faith to keep the faith.
Comments