Easter is almost here! Boy, that’s hard to say. It feels like we just started the new year. But here we are, just a few weeks away from an important day of remembrance in our Christian faith.
Easter, just like Christmas, isn’t a holiday that we are commanded to observe. We observe it by choice because of church tradition. The Council of Nicaea in 325AD chose the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox to observe Easter. The council was trying to establish a unified date for the Christian community to celebrate Easter at the same time.
The origin of the word Easter is unknown. There is an Anglo-Saxon goddess associated with spring and fertility whose name is Eostre or Eostrae and it’s thought that Easter came from that word.
The tradition of eggs and bunny’s dates back to the middle ages. The egg represented a new life or rebirth. Children in Germany began to hunt for colored eggs in gardens, a tradition that became more well known in the 18 Century in the United States.
While Easter is based on a historical event, all of the ideas behind how we celebrate it are all based on tradition, not scripture. Nonetheless, it’s an important date for us.
It’s when we celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s one of two days of the year we will see a large number of people come to our church and it may be the only time to come.
This is a great opportunity for us to share Jesus. We will be in a four week series about Easter that will culminate with Easter Sunday, proclaiming Christ as King. God with us who revealed Himself to us, dying for us, to take on our sins, so we can be reconciled to Him.
It’s an incredible story that every ear needs to hear. Help us by inviting everyone you can to our Easter service on April 20th. Help us pack every pew so the Gospel can be proclaimed and we might see some saved.
See you Sunday!
Pastor Glen
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