The Easter that lasts

For many Australians Easter is just another public holiday with a few twists. Depending on your taste, chocolate Easter eggs, bunnies or bilbies are on sale, along with Easter buns.  School holidays come and go with the related pleasures and challenges. Winter sports are well-underway and it’s time to light the first fire in cold climates.

Is that it?

Easter is a big deal for Christians because we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Listen to what Jesus said about those events:

• ‘The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost’ and ‘ to serve and give his life a ransom in the place of the many’ (Luke 19:10, Mk 10:45)
• I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance. (Jn 10:10)
• ‘But for this I have come to this hour’ (Jn 12:27)

These and similar sayings show the mind of Jesus. Throughout the Gospels we read of his laser-like focus on his last trip to Jerusalem and the Cross. That is how he saved the lost, gave his life as a ransom and brought life to people. It was his ‘hour’ in the deepest sense of the word.

Christians celebrate Easter in different ways. In some traditions, there are services of sombre simplicity on Good Friday and ‘all stops out’ grandeur on resurrection Sunday. In other places the services are more contemporary in form but equally focussed on the death and resurrection of Jesus. Either way, it’s about the death and resurrection of Jesus.

By all means, let’s enjoy the Australian Easter holiday. However, if that is all there is to our Easter, its rather empty. The chocolate wrappers are discarded, the kids return to school, our sports team loses and the fires go out. The holiday Easter fades. Meanwhile, the Middle East burns with the fire of war.

Is that it?

Why not pick up a Bible, read the Easter stories and find the Easter that lasts?