Easter has always meant something special in our house. When I was a kid it meant new clothes for church, a basket, a bunch of people at church I hadn’t even seen before. Then it was over to my grandmothers for dinner. Ham, how did ham get to be the go to on Easter? Turkey at Thanksgiving I can see, but ham at Easter? Where does that fit into the whole story? I just know I waited for and horded the deviled eggs. Deviled eggs…how the heck do you serve that on this holy Christian day? I didn’t care, it was when we got them and I loved them. I really am trying to go somewhere with this post I promise.
When I was younger this is what Easter was to me. I can remember my grandmother Grace making us new clothes for church. In the late 70s it was a white tie-dye suit with light blue accents. It was tough to wear that day, but I would trade one of my favorite records to have it back today. It was awesome, every Easter to see what she would make for us to wear. The clothes itched like crazy but they were made with love for us. I didn’t understand everything about Easter back then. Not like I get much more of it now. Paul talked about this in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I talked like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I stopped those childish ways.” When we are young we see things a certain way. When we grow older we see it differently.
I actually sometimes want to go back and have a “Retro Easter.” Could I go back and wear an itchy homemade suit? Hope for a good basket? Find something good in the Easter egg hunt in my Great Aunt’s backyard? Then we wake up and realize you cannot go back. Eventually we grow up and lose the basket, the itchy clothes, but hopefully never the deviled eggs. When I got older it finally began to sink in that this holiday was not about a bunny or eggs.
I began to realize that Easter means a little more than what I remember from my childhood. There was this whole idea of why did Easter happen? Why was it necessary for Jesus to die and then come back to life? As I grew up I began to realize that it was me. It was my sins that put him on that cross. I caused his pain and his death. But, the crazy thing to think about is that we were the reason for his death, but we were also the reason he came back out of the tomb on Easter. We were the reason for both.
He laid down his life on the cross for us. But, he came out of the tomb so that we could live on beyond our own death. Paul writes about this in Romans. He says: “Your body will always be dead because of sin. But if Christ is in you, then the Spirit gives you life, because Christ made you right with God. God raised Jesus from the dead, and if God’s Spirit is living in you, he will also give life to your bodies that die. God is the One who raised Christ from the dead, and he will give life through his Spirit that lives in you.” (Romans 8:10-11 NCV)
Easter really is the fact that Jesus died for our sins on the cross, but rose from the dead so that he opened up a door for us. When we trust not only in Christ’s death, but in his resurrection we need not live in fear of what is coming. God will make sure our death is not the end of the story. Just like what happened with Jesus. In fact, it sort of catapulted Jesus’ story even higher. It is the same with our story. We are catapulted to a different ending. We do not stop with our death, we begin again.
An Easter of bunnies and candy is awesome. But, it is only part or the beginning of a story that has an eternal feel. When we trust God with our lives here on earth, He throws heaven in as well. Our stories can continue with Him. Maybe it is time to look past the basket and realize there is whole lot more hidden in that Easter hunt.