The thing that bothers me about Easter the most is...
Well, there are actually two things. The first is that everyone gets all rowdy about Jesus, and then the day after.... you hear crickets. Church attendence is at a high, but the week after, it drops back down to normal levels. I mean, I'm greatful that for that one day they care and they go, but it doesn't do any good to just go once or twice a year. I don't personally celebrate Easter. I celebrate Jesus' resurection every day, not just on Sundays, not just one day a year, every single day, as I am supposed to. (This rant applies to Christmas as well, I might add.) It bothers me when poeple only go on holidays. It cheapens what Jesus did for all of us. The least I can do for Him is to remember what He did for us and to do what he said as much as I possibly can.
This brings me the second thing that bothers me (although this bothers me a little less.) The pagan things that go along with Easter that people totally accept bother me. The term Easter comes from a pagan goddess called Eostre, or Eastre. She was a "Mother goddess" and was always depicted with eggs in one hand, lillies in the other, and with a rabbit between her feet. That is where the Easter Bunny comes from, the colored eggs, and the lillies. (Now if someone reading this chooses to do those things, that is their issue.) These things, particularly the Easter Bunny and the colored eggs, become such a huge deal for people, that it shifts the focus away from what Easter should be about. Why give children that false teaching? Just because they are young doesn't mean they can't handle anything spiritual. Jesus said that we must be like little children if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven!
I have no problem dyeing eggs with my family around easter time for the togetherness of it (not that we dye easter eggs anymore), I love the look of lillies, and it's fun to hide a basket full of candy for children to find, but that isn't what Easter is supposed to be about. It is supposed to be a day of religious worship and contemplation, remembering just how much one man loved us- to the point that he died an extremely painful death so that we aren't cast into the burning lake on the Day of Judgement.
Happy Resurrection Sunday, everyone.
This brings me the second thing that bothers me (although this bothers me a little less.) The pagan things that go along with Easter that people totally accept bother me. The term Easter comes from a pagan goddess called Eostre, or Eastre. She was a "Mother goddess" and was always depicted with eggs in one hand, lillies in the other, and with a rabbit between her feet. That is where the Easter Bunny comes from, the colored eggs, and the lillies. (Now if someone reading this chooses to do those things, that is their issue.) These things, particularly the Easter Bunny and the colored eggs, become such a huge deal for people, that it shifts the focus away from what Easter should be about. Why give children that false teaching? Just because they are young doesn't mean they can't handle anything spiritual. Jesus said that we must be like little children if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven!
I have no problem dyeing eggs with my family around easter time for the togetherness of it (not that we dye easter eggs anymore), I love the look of lillies, and it's fun to hide a basket full of candy for children to find, but that isn't what Easter is supposed to be about. It is supposed to be a day of religious worship and contemplation, remembering just how much one man loved us- to the point that he died an extremely painful death so that we aren't cast into the burning lake on the Day of Judgement.
Happy Resurrection Sunday, everyone.