With Easter just past, I’m processing this whole season. Christian holidays have made a dent in the Western mindset. We like the idea of gifts and vivid storytelling, particularly about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Who doesn’t like a long weekend attached to a holiday?
In a recent drive from Calgary to Kindersley the radio station chatted almost incessantly about the Easter Bunny activities of the weekend. The exorbitant price of chocolate was mentioned. The fun of Easter egg hunts. And the Easter Hare (bunny) who judges whether children are naughty or nice – with the subsequent gift or no gift ultimatum!
In my processing I asked myself: “What if I went back to the original holiday of Easter and contrasted that celebration with our current culture’s celebration?”
First, the current culture’s holiday of Easter is about chocolate, feel good celebrations and partying. The Easter egg hunt lets you play hide and seek. The reward? A stomach full of yummy Easter Eggs eaten with friends and family.
A Christian view of the holiday is much less about fun for the moment and more about finding life for the future. Leading up to the Easter weekend is a season of time called Lent. For a bit less than six weeks you set your mind on remembering who you are. Not the glorified self we are sold by the media. Rather, the not so glorious self that realizes my first instinct is not to help others, not to be a team player, not to love those who ridicule me. My first instinct is not to go with God but to make my own self into “God”. If I follow hard after the idea of the Lenten season, realizing my own rebellious and detestable self, then the original story of Easter makes sense.
Second, the current culture lives off therapy and not forgiveness. The therapy I am talking about stresses accepting yourself for who you are. You don’t have to be anyone else – just make the best of life as it is. Your “authentic” self is fully on display to others with the caveat that “I don’t need to or want to change – I’m fine as I am.”
A Christian culture demands change. You are not yet who you were created to be. But you can be. To be in harmony with your creator’s desire for an abundant life for you, you need to take seriously the Lenten discipline of encountering your true self. Only forgiveness for your sin (and I use that word to mean extracting yourself from all that your creator planned for you) will put you back on the path of a full life.
And that is where the Jesus of Easter comes in. Jesus is able to gather all your sin to Himself – He extracts these sin-laden markers from our life. Of course, we have to give those markers away – consciously and intentionally to Jesus. Then Jesus takes on any punishment that may be due. In so doing you and I are left with a clear slate before God. We can walk, talk and live out the best life that there is. Because Jesus literally died so that we could have life.
Easter choices! Which path to walk?
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