I love Easter: I love rejoicing in the resurrection of our Savior. Of course all the Spring flowers and colors certainly help. The one thing that has started to bother me more and more is the commercialism that Easter suffered. To me, Easter is a religious holiday. I can understand Christmas being commercialized (I don't like it, but I can accept). Holy Week and Easter are based on only one thing: The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus.
To the majority of people Easter is nothing more than an excuse to eat too much, dress the kids nice, hype them up on sugar, bunnies, and hard boiled eggs, and give people tulips and hyacinths. They really have no clue, or desire to know, what it's truly about. It's just another holiday to them.
I think this is one of the great things about Judaism. It isn't nearly as commercialized as Christian holidays. I don't know if it's because it's not as "mainstream" of a religion. I wish, to a certain extent, Christianity was that way: Does that make sense? That we could have a holiday, like Easter, and not have it profaned by the Wal-Mart's and Hallmark's.
At work on Friday, there was one person walking around (The Pain-who I know is not by any stretch of the imagination a Christian) wishing everyone a happy Good Friday: There is nothing happy about Good Friday...it is a somber day. It's the day that Jesus is scouraged, beaten, brutalized and crucified for US, for our salvation. This is just an example of the oblivion people have in regards to Easter. Will we do baskets filled with candy and eggs with our kids....sure we will, but it certainly won't be the main event of the day.
For those of us who know, and understand, Easter: HAPPY EASTER!
The Resurrection 1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7'TheSon of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " 8Then they remembered his words. 9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
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