Which do you think is more important, Easter or Christmas?
From a purely celebratory point of view, it looks like Christmas is more important than Easter. Christmas is the time of family get-togethers. It’s the day where you have to split your time between your side of the family and the ‘other’ side of the family. At Christmas, we stuff ourselves silly and then recover when the New Year starts. These things aren’t as important at Easter time.
From the way we treat each other, it looks like Christmas is more important than Easter. Christmas is the time for the unavoidable giving of gifts. At Easter time, you just might get away with not presenting Aunty Gertrude with a colourful, foil-wrapped chocolate egg. But woe betide you if at Christmas time, you don’t have your obligatory wrapped contribution ready! Gift giving is compulsory!
Christmas is also the time when people talk of love, joy and peace. We long for the downing of weapons and the halting of artillery fire. For many, Christmas can be a painful time because we remember relationships that have been lost through bereavement or separation. There is something about Christmas that makes us think about the people we have been close to. Easter doesn’t evoke such feelings as strongly as Christmas does.
The shops also reflect the importance of Christmas over Easter. In December, there’s more bling, more kitsch, more lights, more decorations, more music, more tinsel, more shopping hours! But in April, what do you find greeting you at the supermarket door? There’s simply the colourful rows of wrapped eggs and the waft of hot cross buns.
As you can see, when we consider the way we behave at Christmas, it seems as though this is the most significant celebration on the Christian calendar.
However, from a Christian perspective, the reverse is true. The significance of Easter outweighs the importance of Christmas. Easter is by far the more important celebration.
You see, the extravagant gift that God gave on that very first Christmas was unwrapped on the very first Easter. Only at Easter do we realize the significance of the gift God gave.
On Good Friday, the gift was that Jesus died instead of us. When he died, he did so to take the rap for our own offences against God. The innocent Jesus, who was perfectly God-pleasing, died in the place of guilty, God-offensive people. If we have accepted this gift, God is able to look at us and smile, because our offences against him have been dealt with in Jesus. The reason God sent Jesus on that first Christmas was to be a perfect sacrifice for us on that first Good Friday.
But that’s not all. As we continue to unwrap the extravagant gift that God gave, we discover something more. On Easter Day, Jesus burst out of the grave, back from the dead, never to die again. Because he rose, we have proof that dead men do rise. Because of this, those that have aligned themselves with Jesus will also be raised with him. Because he lives forever, the Christian will live forever. Death doesn’t have to be the end! Without a resurrection, there is no Christianity and no fresh start with God.
Indeed, the whole reason we celebrate Christmas is because of Easter. Jesus was born in order to die, and to be raised again. His death and resurrection is what gives us hope, meaning and purpose. Without these things, we would have nothing of the love, joy and peace that we crave for at Christmas time.
Easter is more important than Christmas! So let the shops know. Tell your family and the in-laws you’ll be over. And come and celebrate Easter this year at a local church near you.
