The other day I was driving to my dentist’s office to get a broken tooth fixed, and a sign I saw at a busy intersection seized my attention. It hung inside a store window and announced, “Easter Made Easy.” I suppose the intention was that if you come inside, you will find whatever it takes to make entertaining and gift giving easy, but whoever made that sign couldn’t possibly have thought the idea through. I mean, Easter made easy?
If Easter only means getting spring clothes, egg hunts, baskets filled with candy, and a bunny, sure.
This holiday, however, is the most sacred to Christians because it marks the ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus, who came to take away the sins of the world. What Jesus went through on the night of his betrayal, his arrest, trial, tortuous beatings, carrying his cross through the streets of Jerusalem on His body, broken for us, then the crucifixion was anything but easy.
Perhaps, if Charles Schulz were still alive, he could make a sequel to his brilliant 1965 “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” In it, Linus would give a little speech explaining the events of Holy Week and Jesus’ Passion, concluding with, “That’s what Easter is all about, Charlie Brown.”
2