Easter Musings

I was at work today and I guess several people near the cubicle of a cafeteria that we have were wishing each other well for the long weekend (guess they were going to make it even longer by not being at work tomorrow). While I couldn't help by overhear the conversation (since it was the same gabby middle-aged females that seem to always congregate around the muffin area), I did find it interesting to note that their best wishes for the weekend were accompanied by "hope the Easter Bunny finds you well" and "hope your kids get lots of eggs."

Is it just me, or has everyone forgotten what Easter is really about? You know, I've had conversations with my son and he's told me that he knows Easter is about Jesus, but why people don't ever talk about Him. It's interesting to hear that out of the mouth of a four-year-old. It's hard to tell him that not everyone thinks Easter is about easter eggs when he goes to the store and that's all he sees, or the parents of the daycare drop off eggs and say "Happy Easter".

I think even the Christian retail industry, although they have for the most part, not indulged in the secularization of Easter, has not been entirely immune. And I've been told that the truth of Jesus' death and resurrection is too much for a little child to grasp. Perhaps, but for Petes' sake, don't substitute it with something so far from the truth as the freaking easter bunny. I have no problems telling my son there's no such thing as the easter bunny, the same way that I have no problems telling him there's no satan claus. Some have called me a party pooper, but do I really want to bold-face lie to my son about these things? And since I don't care what people think about my views anyway, I just ignore the criticism. I feel that my job in life as a parent is to get enough knowledge to my son so someday, he can make a decision to accept Jesus as his personal Saviour. If he does that, my job as a parent has been done. So, I do try to expose him as much to the Bible as possible - we're not talking home theology classes, but you know, have him seeing his Mom and Dad pray or reading Bible stories to him at night. The one thing I can probably do better on is modelling to him a proper devotional life, something that I must confess I'm not the greatest at keeping. But I really don't want, for any reason, to give in to the cultural dumbing down of Easter or Christmas.

If you really think about it, it is Jesus that bore the brunt of our sin on the cross at Calvary. The Passion of the Christ movie, as Hollywoodized as it is, is a fantastic reminder to ourselves what our Saviour had to go through. It certainly changes our perspective in terms of how we view His life, death and resurrection. I mean, the fact that I (and everyone else who simply accepts Him as their Saviour) have been given a second chance, despite the fact that I am a sinner and continue to sin, yet He is willing to forgive us over and over again if we come repentant, is something that is amazing to grasp. As humans, we usually lose our patience after a while with anything and give up. God, in His infinite grace, has decided that we were worth it to have his own Son die for us. To wash all of our sins away, make us new beings, bear a torturous execution that was drawn out way more than any civilized country these days would allow. And he had the power to turn back and chicken out, but He didn't. Because He loves us so much.

The least that we can do as His followers is not substitue a damn easter bunny or satan claus for our Lord and Saviour, no matter how culturally pressured we are to do so. Christian parents, especially, should have enough balls to tell their kids the truth about Easter, the truth about who Christ is, the truth about what the Word says about the "Six Hours One Friday", to borrow the title of the excellent book by Max Lucado. When kids see their parents fevertly and reverently worshipping the Lord in everything they do, it is probably the best witness of the Gospel that we can give to the next generation.