What does Easter mean to you?

What does Easter mean to you? Is there a deeper meaning? Or is it just about eating chocolate, and the Easter Bunny? I did my own research to find the “actual” meaning of Easter; I thought maybe the Christians took over the meaning of easter from an “original pagan festival”, just like Christmas?

I grew up going to church, despite my shit childhood, so I grew with the belief that Easter is about Jesus dying for our sins and rising three days later, being the Son of God and all.

I wanted to challenge myself and you, the reader, thinking about the meaning behind this public holiday that the world celebrates. I found this extract from https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/history-of-easter

“Easter is a Christian holiday that celebrates the belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In the New Testament of the Bible, the event is said to have occurred three days after Jesus was crucified by the Romans and died in roughly 30 A.D. The holiday concludes the “Passion of Christ,” a series of events and holidays that begins with Lent—a 40-day period of fasting, prayer and sacrifice—and ends with Holy Week, which includes Holy Thursday (the celebration of Jesus’ Last Supper with his 12 Apostles), Good Friday (on which Jesus’ death is observed), and Easter Sunday. Although a holiday of high religious significance in the Christian faith, many traditions associated with Easter date back to pre-Christian, pagan times.”

I also wanted to ask one of my Christian friends Tim Tovey who I met through doing the Diploma in Youth and Community work through Praxis, in Wellington, a Faith-based training for up and coming youth workers, and we lived together while we both were part of the Urban Vision Community.

A community that dedicates themselves to giving themselves and their resources to the least. I chose Tim because he has such a drive and love towards Jesus which for me I find admirable. He lights up whenever he speaks about his journey with Jesus, and I thought he’d be the perfect fit to explain the significance behind Easter. Here are his answers to my questions about Easter and his journey with faith:

“What does Easter mean to you?”

Great question! Easter is Christians' annual celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus (Yeshua) the Christ... but to really appreciate the significance of what that means, requires that we ourselves dive in to the story and really engage in it - not just try and figure it out and then dismiss it. When we engage in the story of Easter, we will find ourselves meeting this enigmatic person, Jesus of Nazareth, and our lives may very well look different when we do!

If you are interested in going a bit deeper into the real meaning of Easter, check out this great excerpt from Tom Wright’s book,

The Day The Revolution Began:

http://ntwrightonline.org/free-excerpt-n-t-wrights-next-book/

“What are your thoughts about man-made religion vs. God?”

I think this guy Jefferson Bethke put it pretty well:

The Bible says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:27)

Imagine if we were religious about looking after orphans and widows... what sort of a world would that create? I think we'd all look like Mother Teresa!

Here's a real simple rule of thumb that I find really helpful: A friend once told me, "It's not about doing things for Jesus (which is 'works', aka religion); it's about doing things with Jesus (which is relationship.) For me, it's about relationship, not religion. Everything we do has to flow out of relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

“What are your thoughts about Easter becoming commercialised?”

It's disappointing, to say the least, that what started out as an annual celebration and reminder of the amazing story of the Immortal God dying (a paradox in terms) on the cross in order to restore the world to its original created purpose... (a perfect world without sickness, pain, poverty, corruption, violence, death etc. (the effects of “sin”); in other words, a world filled with love and laughter and freedom and beauty, so much better than anything we've ever experienced in our lifetime on this broken earth!)

... has been commandeered by commercialism and watered down to simply be about consuming lots of chocolate and (oh-so-delicious!) hot-cross buns; and having a holiday with your family at the beach (if you live somewhere warm enough, that is!!)

Yes, it is a full-blown debasement of the real meaning of Easter, and I am grieved that the amazing story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection roughly 2000 years ago is all but lost on ordinary New Zealanders.

But I'm also not surprised. Because that's human nature - it's what we do; humans without a relationship with the Living God, Creator and Sustainer of all life, will naturally choose to live for themselves and do what pleases them. And all ‘commercialisation’ is, is the result of the cumulative effect on a global scale, of individuals choosing to take what they want for themselves, rather than living for the ultimate good of all creation.

Consumerism, and it's parent, Capitalism, is simply a well-entrenched system that we've built as a human race over thousands of years, and now, in our fast-paced 21st Century world, we are feeling the painful consequences of these decisions that have been made by us, and all the humans who have gone before us, worse than ever! Something’s gotta give! And I firmly believe it will - in the fullness of time and the fulfilment of God’s Redemptive Plan.

Yes, I’m hopeful! Because I know that when you zoom out a bit more and see the full picture, you see that we're still 'held in the hands' of our Creator God, and we're part of His Great Plan to restore the world to its original created purpose,

and I look forward to the time when the Revolutionary new world that got kicked off in the cross of Jesus Christ will be fulfilled in His second coming, and the "culmination of the ages" (oooh, I love that term!) when God ushers in the New Heavens and the New Earth, that He promised at the very end of the Bible in Revelation chapter 21.

So, thanks Georgiana for interviewing me about this subject that I’m so passionate about! And if any of your readers are interested in talking further with me about all this, they are welcome to email me at actiontim01@gmail.com

Wishing you ALL God’s Richest Blessings this Easter season!

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Cor. 13:14)