Easter

Celebrating the Easter holiday is a fun time and a meaningful thing for many Christians. Easter is the traditional remembrance of Jesus' resurrection. Starting with Palm Sunday, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem past cheering crowds and continuing through the death, burial and Resurrection, this is a powerful series of events to recall.

Easter creates a problem for many Christians in that there is no mention of this in the Bible. It has its origins in Pagan religion, is named after Pagan figures, and only got its American beginnings in the 1870's. Some would say, "Well, that doesn't matter. The death, burial and resurrection are surely in the Bible." And that is certainly true. But it is also true that neither Jesus, nor any Bible character, ever made any reference to celebrating Easter as a religious holiday. Now many would say, "Well, it doesn't matter. It still is a good thing to celebrate." And that may be true; it is not for me to say. I'm just giving a few facts here.

What we do see in the Bible is a clear teaching by Jesus to remember his death; this is recorded in Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22. This is where Jesus, at the time of taking the Passover feast, institutes the Lord's Supper, telling them to take bread to remember His body and juice of the vine to remember His blood being sacrificed. Then we see in the book of Acts, after Jesus has left them, that the Apostles and other Christians were keeping this Lord's Supper remembrance each Sunday. Thus, many Christians today celebrate this remembrance every week; kind of an "Easter" every week.

But what does God want? You will have to answer this for yourself. All I see is that Jesus taught nothing about an annual celebration, but was very specific about keeping the Lord's Supper...and it seems to be a regular weekly thing in the early church. For sure, these are powerful events and deserve to be remembered.

Have a great week!