I find myself more and more amazed at the secularization of a secular holiday. Where did Easter come from anyway? It started as a secualar “spring festival” that was adapted by newly converted Christians because it coincidentally fell around the same time as the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. First and foremost my response to this idea is, What? I know that there are a lot of things that we have taken from pagan society and vice versa, but who knew that Easter, the Superbowl Sunday of Church, was a pagan holiday first? (Thanks to Gary Lamb for the idea of Superbowl Sunday, mad props yo! Hope to meet you at Buzz!) The secondary idea that I get from this origin of sorts is that early missionaries thought it easier to accept the cultural norm than to change the beliefs of the newly converted. While I understand contextualization, to start a worldwide holiday because you were scared is unbelievable!! They were basically scared that these once pagan people would kill them or at the very least commit apostasy. How often are we guilty of the same thing. In our society it is very easy to get caught up in PC and all that crap (if you can’t tell, I am not really into that!). I hope and pray that as a person first and foremost and as a Church leader that I NEVER take that easy road and twist my beliefs and Scripture to fit culture. (Granted there are some things that are not primary issues and therefore not worth dying for, but I would conside the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior to be a primary issue.)
I have long held that Jesus never commissioned us to remember his birth, but yet we spend countless hours, days, months and even years preparing for what we know as Christmas. While I don’t think it is bad to remember the birth of our Lord and Savior, I do think it is bad that often we worship the almighty dollar and the god of Visa. While not every Christian falls prey to these, many do, myself included. It is very easy to get caught up in the frenzy of the season. But once again, Jesus did not say remember that I was born, He said remember that I died. (I realize that these exact words were never spoken by Jesus, I take the institution of the Lord’s Supper to be a commemeration of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. I also draw from I Corinthians 11 where Paul is instructing the church on how to conduct the Lord’s Supper.)
“Wait a minute”, you might be thinking, “I thought this post was about Easter?” It is.
What is the big idea? The big idea is this: Easter is about preparation. Pastor Rich talked about this at church this week, although I must confess that I didn’t remember what the sermon was really about until Monday night Life Group when I read the passage that Rich preached on. (Sorry Rich, it really wasn’t a swing and a miss, just my short attention span…when I don’t do something with the info, it creeps into the recesses of my brain.) Mary got the idea of preparation…she annoited Jesus with perfume that costs more money than I make in a year. She was readying Him for the grave. How many of us have the dispensible income to give to Jesus and not even think twice about it? I am not saying that Mary was inordinately wealthy, but she was all out, full on in love with Jesus. The monetary cost was nothing compared to the “surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” She got it. She lived it. She modeled it. On the contrary, Judas didn’t get it. He was hung up on the monetary issue. Why not give the money to the poor? Jesus says that the poor will always be with you, but I won’t. Seems like ol’ Judas didn’t even get what Jesus was saying. He was probably more infuriated that he wasn’t able to sell the perfume, which interestingly enough contained Nard (I just think that is funny, who says the Bible doesn’t have funny parts?!?!). He was ticked that he couldn’t get his grubby little hands on the cash.
Which one are you? How are you preparing for Easter? Are you buying chocolate and Cadbury Eggs? (I already bought my Cadbury Eggs…mmmm!) What is your focus as the commemeration of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection approach? I urge you to undergo preparations for death. We are called to die so that we may live. I don’t encourage anyone to actually die, but to die to ourselves. To take up the Cross of Christ. To follow with reckless abandon. To repent, because after all is said and done the entire reason for Jesus coming to earth was for the forgiveness of sin. The Son of God on the Cross, in the tomb and resurrected is THE link between us and God for forgiveness of sins. If you haven’t taken the step to enter into relationship with Jesus by asking for forgiveness, I encourage you to pray a simple prayer right now, it might go something like this:
“Lord, I recognize that I am a sinner separated from you by my sins. I know you sent Jesus to save me from a life apart from you. I ask for your forgiveness of my sins. I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior and from this day forward I will live for Him and not myself.”
It doesn’t have to be some ornate prayer, just something from your heart. God is always ready and willing to have a conversation with you, all you have to do it call. If you would like to know more, please feel free to contact me via email, I would be more than happy to talk about all this with you.
It is truly my prayer that we would all prepare for Easter with a new spiritual frenzy. I pray that daily we would seek to find ways to annoint Jesus in this prepatory stage. Amen.
