Should we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection on … Easter?

DICKSON, Tenn. — Holidays are sort of an elephant in the church. We’re not real sure how to treat them.

Many Christians celebrate them within the comfort of their own home only to come to church and witness them avoided at all costs. Sometimes the impression is given that it is sinful to celebrate because they are rooted in paganism.

One Christian woman tells of how her mom used to make her an Easter dress every year, but she wouldn’t wear it for the first time on Easter because she didn’t want her friends to think that she was celebrating Easter.

And then there’s this — the Bible never sanctions us, as the church, to celebrate secular holidays such as Easter. But isn’t it interesting that the Jews created a holiday known as Purim (Esther 9:27-28)? Yet God never commanded it.

God had commanded his people to keep several feasts like Passover, but Purim was not among those listed in the Torah. However, there didn’t seem to be any assumption on the part of the Jews that they could not add to the number of feasts.

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Another example of the Jews creating an additional holiday is found during the intertestamental period between Malachi and Matthew. The Feast of Dedication or Hanukkah was a celebration created to commemorate Judah Maccabee and his Jewish forces retaking the temple and rededicating it to God after the Greeks had defiled it.

In John 10, we see that Jesus was spending time in the temple, and I think we can rightly presume that he was, like his Jewish brethren, commemorating its rededication to God. We find nothing in Scripture that presents these holidays in a negative light, nor do we find anything in Scripture that even suggests that God’s people were condemned for establishing and celebrating them.

I don’t agree with talking about Jesus every Sunday of the year except the one that’s closest to Christmas. I don’t agree with avoiding the subject of the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

My view of holidays in relation to the church is that I think we, as Christians, should redeem them. I think we should take full advantage of the opportunity to talk about Jesus and his resurrection this time of year. I want to shift the focus away from bunnies and eggs and talk about the cross and the empty tomb.

It’s silly to avoid the greatest event in the history of the world at a time when the world is actually pausing to consider it. It’s never wrong to talk about his resurrection. It is wrong to purposely avoid it.

So I’m going to redeem the day. I’m going to make use of the opportunity to talk about Jesus on Christmas, on Easter and every other day of the year. I hope to help people understand that our Savior is about so much more than what is seen on the secular surface.

I’m going to redeem the day. I’m going to make use of the opportunity to talk about Jesus on Christmas, on Easter and every other day of the year.