OF EASTER AND EGGS

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Yes, it's Easter time, a glorious season to remember and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What a great thought: Jesus, Who is God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, died to pay the price for your sins and mine, then three days later, He rose again, so that by trusting Him as Lord and Savior, we can have eternal life and a day to day relationship with Him.  What's not to celebrate?

Not so fast, there, Skippy!

About this time every year, I start getting emails, seeing Facebook posts, and reading blog entries that try to dump cold water over my Easter enthusiasm. I'm not referring to skeptics or cultists who either try to deny the literal, bodily resurrection of Christ or who try to show that historic Christianity has it all wrong, but they alone have the truth. No, I'm talking about those self-professed paganism professors who not only know the detailed sinister origins of Easter, but can show you the insidiously evil function of every symbol traditionally associated with the holiday (and if they seem eerily familiar, it's because they also come out in December to let the air out of Christmas).

These folks, to various degrees, feel it is their duty to point out that eggs and rabbits were used in ancient fertility cults and therefore, should not be used by Christians. Even the holiday known as "Easter" is named after Ishtar (or variations thereof) and has nothing to do with Jesus, so churches that celebrate Easter are, in essence, denying the faith.

I don't have the time or patience in this blog to specifically address the specific arguments against Easter eggs or anything else connected with it. I just want to leave a couple of thoughts (with the usual stipulations that the views expressed here are mine alone):

1. How is the hard-boiled egg that sat in my fridge the night before suddenly transformed into an instrument of paganism when I put some food-coloring on it? Doesn't that seem like an inordinate amount of power to give to something that will eventually be chopped up and put in a salad?  Using an egg does not mean I'm engaging in pagan rituals any more than saying, "It's Thursday" means I'm revering Thor, the god of thunder for whom the day is named (sorry Chris Hemsworth fans).

2. I know this stuff. I know about the eggs, Ishtar, bunnies, and the spring rituals. I'd venture a guess that most educated Christians have heard about all this. But when I get to the end of a rich, full Sunday of remembering and rejoicing in the resurrection of Christ and celebrating the life He gives, I'm not thinking about what ancient pagans did. It's not even on my radar. And while the unbeliever may not be contemplating the truth of Scripture while engaging in egg hunts or gathering with family for dinner, he is likely not thinking of paganism either.

I'm not trying to argue for or against Easter celebrations by Christians. . .or anyone else. I commemorate Jesus' triumph over death because He saved me and I love Him.  You can argue all you want about whether or not the organized Church should have "Christianized" a pagan festival, but the fact that, for millions of believers, Easter means the resurrection of Christ, I'd say the process was successful.

Agree or disagree, I welcome your comments, but be nice. If you want to "egg" me on, I might just delete your comment and that's no yolk!

.

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT

Happy Easter everybody!
My oldest daughter just called...she's safe and sound after driving back to school following a whirlwind weekend at home for the holiday. She's got finals and then home for the summer. This just topped off a very pleasant day. Easter....a time of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus! Our church holds two indentical worship services on Easter (no Sunday School hour), so I had the privilege of doing our Large Group Celebration (aka Children's Church) twice. Let me tell you...no one celebrates like kids!

Some adults however....

I love apologetics...the systematic defense of the Christian faith. I love study and theology and all of that. And I love a good debate! I guess that's why I'm in the position of getting to teach children one moment and adults the next. But there are days in which I get tired of hearing the doctrinal "axes" that some people have. It's almost as if I'm all prepared to rejoice and have fun and get excited about the fact that Jesus is alive, and some pseudo-intellectual wants to rain on my proverbial parade.

I won't let them!

Yes, I know that Easter was originally a pagan holiday. So was Christmas. But through the centuries, Christians have turned them around so that we are celebrating something good, something true. So what....are we supposed to abandon the observance of something right because pagans once used it to practice wrong? That doesn't make sense to me.
In the last month, I've had no less than three articles come to my attention about whether Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday or a Friday. I will not bore you with my own insightful analysis or conclusions about this issue. All I will say at this point is that two of the articles make this a condition for saving faith and go as far as to say that if you do not believe in a Wednesday crucifixtion, then you are calling God a liar, have denied the faith, and are worse than an infidel.

Please....PLEASE repeat after me:

HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

I didn't intend to blog about this particular subject tonight. But on the television right now as I type are four experts on religion trying to demonstrate that the Jesus of the Bible is a myth and that there was no resurrection. Line them up...I'm ready! But to the brethren, the ones who believe that Jesus came alive after being killed and buried in a tomb, I say, Let's take a moment, set aside our charts, and celebrate the resurrection together! We can dialogue on the rest later. For now...

HE IS RISEN...ALLELUIA!