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.

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