Christians adapt.  The churches of early years adapted so that the locals didn’t lose out on their parties and good times just to be a follower of Christ.  That’s why Christmas, the Christ Mass, is celebrated as Jesus’ birthday in midwinter instead of in spring (when shepherds would have been in the fields, watching their flocks by night).  It is celebrated during the time of the old festivals, like the Roman Saturnalia.  Feast! Party! But…Praise God, too!  It was, scholars say, an effort to be culturally sensitive.

For Easter, we have this day.  A day that used to be called Resurrection Sunday.  Easter is taken from the pre-Germanic word eostre (the direction from which the sun rises).  It is celebrated on the first Sunday (the day of Christ’s resurrection) after the Vernal Equinox.  (Often, this falls at about the time of Passover.)

Today, Christians also adapt culturally in many respects. Not every culture in the world has to learn the “original languages” of the Bible in order to learn about God — we try to translate God’s message for many nations and many languages.  There is no set of “righteous music” that anyone has to memorize or learn or prove expert in to be a Christian. People that have tried to impose “proper hymns” on other cultures have sometimes found them to be erroneous in culture context.

The message of Easter, though, is global.  Life after death. The love of God. The hope of eternity.  This Friday is “Good Friday.”  Did Jesus actually die on a Friday? I have heard excellent discussions that support and deny this.  He died.  When he could have saved himself, he died.  As was prophesied, his bones were pulled out of their joints. Not one bone was broken in his death, he was executed with criminals, and buried in a borrowed tomb.  All of this and more was prophesied about the coming Deliverer of Israel. And it came true.

After Jesus died, the curtain in the temple that separated the Holiest of Holies from the next chamber was ripped in half.  Not by a man, but by God, who needed no more “special access” ceremonies to gain his presence; his Son had become the bridge between Man and his Creator.

This upcoming weekend, my family is celebrating.  Not celebrating a torturous death of the only perfect man to have walked on Earth, but celebrating his victory over death. Because, on the Sunday after he was killed, Jesus appeared, alive, to many.  No, it wasn’t a mass delusion, but rather the miraculous reappearance of a man who was seen by hoardes to have been dead.  He walked, talked, ate, showed the wounds that he had suffered, and most of all, reassured his friends that he was alive and that they had to tell the world.

And they did.  All but John son of Zebedee suffered deaths that were sometimes torturous because they told others about Jesus.  For a joke, or for profit, people will perpetuate a lie. To preserve their reputation or their government. But to be tortured and die for a lie that one is telling is not in the nature of mankind.  But these people did.  And for centuries, people have believed their message of one perfect life given in sacrifice so that all of mankind can live forever with their Creator.

So if we celebrate a day that may or may not be named for a pagan goddess, if we color eggs, if we give chocolate bunnies to our children…if we do these things on a certain day, we have to make sure we share the reason we celebrate.

It’s not about the munchies, it’s about the Man.

Tags: celebrate, cultural awareness, death, Easter, holiday, Jesus, love, pagan, resurrection