On Having a Complicated Relationship with Easter
For as long as I can remember, Easter has been like the Christian Super Bowl. It’s everything. Churches spend insane budgets every year trying to make the story of Easter appealing enough to fill the pews with any bodies available. The more the merrier. Churches across the country become a sea of pastel, pleated pants, and fashionable hats.
Because the death and resurrection of Christ changed everything.
Or did it?
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve developed, for me, an anxiety-inducing relationship with Easter. What was once a milestone Sunday has become mostly just another day.
Easter has always been, for the Christian, the manifestation of hope. The light at the end of the tunnel. Jesus died, and everything seemed dark and lost and hopeless. But then 3 days later he rose, descended into Hell, defeated death, and re-instilled hope in humanity.
But what really changed?
People who were poor before Christ’s resurrection were still poor after.
People who had lost children before Christ’s resurrection didn’t suddenly get those children back after.
The list could go on. Hungry people, sick people, oppressed people, people in prison, and on and on and on.
None of those people suddenly saw their circumstances change post resurrection.
Fast forward more than two thousand years later, and those questions still gnaw at me.
What does Easter change for the single mom struggling to put food on the table, having to pick up an extra graveyard shift just to keep the lights on this month?
What does Easter change for the homeless addict who just wants to get clean?
What does Easter change for the LGBTQ+ kid who was told by their parents that they’re never allowed back in the house?
What does Easter change for the children in the Middle East being blown apart by bombs?
What does Easter change for the parents who are spending this easter without their child, because someone with a gun marched into their school on a mission and took a half a dozen lives?
On the surface, the answer is a resounding, NOTHING.
If I’m terribly honest (and my therapist says that I should be) Easter, for the most part, feels like just another Sunday. I’ve still got bills, a job that feels overwhelming at times, anxiety, and a whole host of things rattling around in my brain that I’m not sure how to deal with.
The truth is, I will wake up on Easter Sunday, and the world will be the same as it was on Saturday, and the same as it will be on Monday.
But for those of us who at least attempt to align our lives with the teachings of Jesus the Christ, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ SHOULD change everything.
It SHOULD cause us to abandon the partisan bickering and us vs. them mentality and see every human as an image bearer of God.
It SHOULD cause us to advocate for holistic healthcare for every woman in the country.
It SHOULD cause us to fight to ensure that hunger is distant memory for every human on earth.
It SHOULD cause us to see human lives as more important than the “rights” that a piece of paper supposedly gives us.
In other words, it SHOULD cause us to unapologetically bring the kingdom of heaven crashing into earth. To advocate tirelessly for the flourishing of every human. To turn our cheek, to feed the poor, to do for the least of these, and to ask every other follower of Jesus to do the same.
I suppose what we’re left with is a choice.
Are we going to let the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ change the world?
Or are we going to continue to play partisan politics, us vs. them, and demonize the other side because they just don’t get it?
All while the ones that are suffering the most continue to suffer.
May you experience this Easter season with fresh eyes. Wholly awake to the transformative grace and mercy of the risen Christ. The Christ who call us all to live as he did. Who call us to turn our cheeks, lay down our lives, and go to the most marginalized and oppressed.
Because if Easter isn’t good news for EVERYONE, it isn’t good news for ANYONE.