Why Easter?

The thought just occurred to me, Why Easter? Why do we celebrate Easter? Should we? Is it a waste of time? Is it necessary to celebrate Easter as a Christian?

Since this is my blog, I’ll weigh in on Easter. Easter is the time that most Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Eastern orthodox celebrate it 35 days later. But none the less celebrate it.

The Bible states no reason for or against celebrating Easter or the resurrection of Jesus. Now as a Christian Easter is a big deal. Without the resurrection of Jesus we have NO hope. Now having said that, is it possible to be a Christian and not celebrate Easter?

I think it is not only possible but preferred. Now what I mean by that is; our westernized American celebrations seem to take on so many unintended and less than desirable traditions. That those traditions become the focus of the celebration. Easter is one of those, we celebrate spring and new beginnings and bunnies and colored eggs.

What does that have to do with the resurrection of Christ?

In my opinion, nothing. Just like what does Santa Claus have to do with Christmas. Not St. Nicolas, but Santa Claus. Again, I’d say nothing. Then add to all this what many Christian parents do by having their children believe in the Easter bunny, who brings you a Easter basket filled with candy and goodies. That is terrible, because the parents are telling or encouraging their children to believe in something that isn’t real and can’t be seen. They are lying to their children. Then when the children find out that it was in fact a lie, what could they conclude about Jesus? They believe in him, they can’t see him so maybe he isn’t real either. All this surrounds the resurrection of Jesus. I believe that this is a terrible work of the enemy. Seeking to distract believers from focusing on the real meaning of Easter, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

I believe we would be better served if we stopped celebrating Easter and started celebrating Jesus.

I mean celebrate what He has done, is doing and will do. Celebrate that we have a friendship with him and he wants a friendship with you. He loves you and isn’t mad at you. He has a plan for your life and you don’t have to wait to get to heaven to have victory and experience that plan. Maybe we should go back to that simple truth taught in an old Sunday School song; “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”