With the Easter season coming up, I tend to see more eggs, bunnies and peeps. It starts to become less about the Christian holiday it has always been. Being a Christian myself, this becomes one of the most, if not the most, important holiday within Christianity. We don’t celebrate the Easter Bunny hiding eggs for an egg hunt. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. I know that people have made connections to the bunny and an egg as a means of spring and new life. While this has some sense to it, it shouldn’t change the fact that this remains a holy day. I don’t like hearing about people getting candy all the time for Easter, as if it was Halloween.
You might be thinking that I’m just groaning about Easter as yet another Hallmark holiday type of event. Just as Santa Clause was a secular Christmas type of figure, the Easter Bunny is the secular Easter figure. I’m just trying to put my stance on what the meaning of Easter truly is. If you didn’t know, Easter happens to be one of the biggest times for all Christians to attend church—yes, this includes the ones who don’t regularly go to church. I just find it odd that we forget such a sacred holiday, turning it into something else. It’s one thing to choose not to celebrate it, but it’s another when you completely change the meaning of what it was always meant to be.
Easter is supposed to be a time of celebration for what Jesus did on the cross. He gave up his life so that we can change ours. His resurrection brings a whole new meaning for Christians everywhere of something supernatural and beyond words. No one will be able to explain his death well enough; only that he was able to conquer it. He can’t be defeated because of his power and what he has done—something no one can do.
What does an Easter bunny have to do with the one who died on the cross, and rose again on the third day? Jesus made the way of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” He made the way for us in the way that our sins used to separate us from God. It’s a free gift that should be revered by all Christians.
Like I said before, it’s one thing to see Christmas as a time of giving and the Hallmark holiday of a big man with a red suit. But when it comes to Easter, I don’t see it as another excuse for candy and gifts. It’s a time of reflection of what he did, and a celebration of how his death changed the course of humanity for the better.
This is the time to celebrate Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of the world. It's a time that was set aside for Christians to repent and ask for forgiveness. His resurrection is the meaning of Easter, not just the bunny. I’m not saying to get rid of the eggs and the candy, but to remember the reason for this time. His sacrificial love was beyond what anyone could’ve imagined.
We shouldn’t sugarcoat it to avoid the name of Jesus. That’s like saying that a TV show has nothing to do with the main character, or the star of it. It seems ridiculous considering that that's the main point of it all. Why can’t we say the same thing for Jesus, the reason for the cross as the resurrection that left the cave empty? Food for thought on what Easter is about. Easter is the resurrection of Jesus, and it will always be celebrated that way in my heart as well as in many other Christians'.
