Have a Missional Easter!
Easter is all about the resurrection of Jesus. Easter is the greatest holiday of the Christian year. It is the single most important event in history. But because of our culture and some of our traditions, this fact has often obstructed me from seeing Easter as the greatest day of the year.
However once I learned that many of our traditions, The Easter Bunny, and Easter Egg, even wearing new white clothes, were actually at one time symbols of the new life in Christ and the Resurrection, then my eyes were more clearly able to focus on Jesus and his mission.
Let me explain, but first a bit of history.
The Easter Hare first appears in history in the 1500’s in Germany. Painted eggs were first recorded in the 13th century, also around Germany. Cultures around the world and throughout history have always been excited to celebrate the new life of Springtime. Many have used these and similar symbols in artistic ways to show their love for life.
In the 6th century Pope Gregory the Great (540-604) sent missionaries into northern Europe and the British Isles who were trained to find cultural symbols and traditions that could be used in preaching the gospel and thus winning the lost. He wrote, “Since the people are accustomed, when they assemble for sacrifice, to kill many oxen in sacrifice to the devils, it seems reasonable to appoint a festival for the people by way of exchange. The people must learn to slay their cattle not in honor of the devil, but in honor of God and for their own food…”
In a sense this is what we do today. We have taken guitars, drums, and keyboards, that have been used to glorify man and sin, and we use them as vehicles of worship to glorify God. Not only has God redeemed instruments but you and I. Don’t forget that we were once lost. We were once self serving, self pleasing, and by doing so we were serving Satan, God’s enemy, and destined for wrath. God is in the redeeming business.
And to early cultures that were more in tune with nature and the seasons, eggs and hares were symbols of joy and life. They were symbols that represented Winter was over, the sun was out, trees were budding, grass was growing, flowers blooming, the earth was being warmed and life was everywhere. Naturally missionaries saw these symbols and festivals that coincided with the Christian Passover and adapted them in order to relate more fully to the cultures around them. It’s almost as if God had ingrained those ancient cultures with seeds of the Gospel.
Of course these symbols have lost their meaning to us today because of historical and cultural differences in with they were first used, and today’s marketing ploys. And although these symbols and traditions may not speak to us today of the Gospel or the Resurrection, we can see them as remnants of efforts to reach the lost. Relics of the past, tools that were once used to reach people right where they were, stuck in their ways, stuck in their culture, stuck in their sin, serving themselves and Satan.
They can remind us to look for ways to relate, seeds of the Gospel, that have been planted beforehand in peoples lives. Perhaps you know someone who engages in humanitarian work but doesn’t know Jesus. And while many people do good for selfish reasons, at least part of this desire, even if it gets distorted, comes from God. It’s not just bad situations that God uses to reach people. My own testimony proves this.
In a time when evangelism is at record low, and we have silly examples of Christians on tv sitting in huge gold chairs, or that our greatest aspiration is to join the bless me club. The lost see that stuff and think if Jesus could see that he’d roll over in his grave. We need a fresh wave of missionaries, we need both you and I to go out and bring the Gospel to work, to our home, to school, the gym, our neighborhood, even the grocery store and the mall. We are never on vacation. Satan never takes a break. The only break he took is when Jesus broke his skull with his foot, by going to the cross.
I want to encourage you to live as though you have a purpose, live as though you are here for a reason, not just to go to work and make a living, and raise a family. Those are all awesome and fulfilling things in themselves. But there’s more.
Live with your eyes open and aware, you might just find an Easter Egg
