Avoiding Easter at Christmas
I just finished reading a very interesting article from RELEVANT Magazine entitled "Avoiding Easter at Christmas." It seems like a strange concept, one that may not even make since, but something I now find myself in agreement with. Let me explain.
What is Christmas? No, it's not about the presents, or the food (although that is one of my favorite aspects), the time with family and friends or the winter weather. I know that many of us know that Christmas is about the "birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (that phrase in quotation marks needs to be said in a childish voice for you to get the full effect). It is our time to celebrate that birth, even though Christmas occurs in December and Jesus might have really been born in January, blah blah blah. But Christmas is our time as believers to recognize Christ's birth and to celebrate it.
What is Easter? Again, it's not about the silly bunny, Easter egg hunts (again, another of my favorite aspects), or the cute pastel outfits children wear to church on Easter Sunday. Easter is our time as believers to recognize the pain and suffering Christ was put through. To realize that our sin put him on the cross and that God used the cross as an example of how bad violence in that world, and now this world, is. Easter is our time to remember that Christ not only died, but rose again! And because of the blood he shed we are forgiven.
So, what happens when we put the two together? We FORGET about the life of Christ! We go straight from the manger to the cross. We think that Jesus was born, given some gold and frankincense, then carried his cross to Golgotha, died and rose again in about 17 minutes. We don't remember the signs and wonders, the miracles, the healings. We forget about Jesus loving the unlovable and ministering to the poor and needy. We forget that Christ lived a life that is the perfect example of how we are to live. And we also forget that Christ came to live among us and to learn what it was like to be human from first hand experience.
Now, we don't have a holiday that celebrates the life of Christ. We don't take a season or time of year to read the miracles and parables and reflect upon them. We don't have days out of school or off of work to think about what Jesus accomplished during his years of full blown ministry. Because we lack that type of holiday, what are we to do? Well, we should definitely reflect upon Christ's teachings everyday and that's one reason that we don't need a holiday. But we also must remember Christmas for what it is and Easter for what it is. And I think that we shouldn't put so much effort on trying to fit the two into one.
One of the interesting aspects of this article I read was the author's discussion about the term Messiah and the term Savior. Jesus was both of these. But, first and foremost he was the Messiah! He rescued us by simply arriving! He then becomes our Savior through his death on the cross. The author also discussed how the term Messiah is much more corporate than Savior. We say that Jesus is our "PERSONAL Savior" not that he's our "personal Messiah." By recognizing Jesus as our Messiah we are uniting ourselves under his arrival and celebrating that arrival.
So, there you have it, or at least I hope: what I mean about trying to avoid Easter at Christmas. I think it can be summed up in a pretty simple statement. Jesus did not come to simply die, but to live! And through this life we have the example, we have the prototype, we have the way that we are to live. When we don't live that way, when we screw up, well that's when the power of the cross and Jesus as our Savior comes into play.
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! And, this year, don't worry about Easter until April! :-)