Happy Easter, or something like that…
A few years ago someone told me that I shouldn’t use the phrase “Happy Easter”, because “Easter” was a reference to an ancient mystic god of fertility. They went onto explain how “the new agers” had a strategy to use that name to undermine our Christian values. So instead I should use the phrase “Happy Resurrection Sunday”…
OK?!?
Christians, especially evangelicals (of which I am one), get so hung up on names, titles, labels, and definitions. I mean really, I never thought of some fertility god when I woke up early Easter Sunday Morning to go to church with my family. I was there to worship our triumphant Savior. But if it will make you feel better “Happy Resurrection Sunday”!
Remember the simple days of your early Christian walk? Remember when you didn’t worry if you had a perfect doctrinal statement? Remember when “Christian” just meant “Christ Follower”? And Jesus was enough to save you from your sins and secure your future?
But in our sophistication we have a need, a need to keep score, a need to know who’s in, and a need to define who isn’t. So we add addendums to Jesus…
Do you believe the Bible is completely inerrant or just inspired? Do you believe God still speaks today or is all revelation closed? Do you believe that the gifts have ceased or are you a “charismatic”? Are you a pre, mid, or post tribulation Christian?
When I knelt at our big blue couch some 46 years ago, none of those questions were discussed. My mother simply believed that Jesus was enough. And that all the evidence one needed was an internal witness of security and an external change of behavior.
Remember when Jesus was simply the way, the truth, and the life? Remember when you didn’t have to defend your position to brothers and sisters in the Lord? Remember when we used to be civil to each other? Remember when we didn’t treat others with different doctrinal beliefs with the same vitriol that conservative talk show personalities treat democrats?
I want to go back there…
Happy Easter or Resurrection Sunday…
Try this - Celebrate with your family the victory of our Lord overcoming death to bring us Good News…
