Many know by now that Easter is another word for Ishtar, who was a self-proclaimed, real life Babylonian goddess, said to have been married to the biblical figure of Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-10) and long before it (meaning “Easter”) was celebrated by Christians around the world, it was celebrated by pagans worshiping this goddess who happened to specialize in fertility (I guess if you’re going to specialize in something…).  This celebration apparently drew world wide popularity because King Herod Agrippa celebrated it after killing James, one of Jesus’ disciples and then decided to imprison Peter during the party, which at the time had no connection to the resurrection of Jesus. (see Acts 12:1-5, KJV)  It happened to occasionally connect with the Jewish celebration of the passover.

Years go by and the church becomes official and the church becomes THE CHURCH.  THE CHURCH decides, in honor of their risen Savior to mix holiday metaphors a bit, and copy the culture that exists.  Easter then becomes a THE CHURCH holiday.  The problem is the former holiday never really goes away, but the two begin to meld together in a bunny loving, egg coloring, candy eating, oh yeah, and by the way, Jesus rising type of way.

By the time it’s too late, THE CHURCH becomes THE CHURCHES and wonders what all the confusion is about – this thing, after all, is about one thing.  The one thing that, somewhere along the way, was not enough, and needed to be pepped up or apologized for or altered a little bit, because it’s been years since anyone’s seen anyone rise from the dead.

So this Sunday, THE CHURCHES are going to do everything they can to ‘pull out all the stops’ and wow you with classy production, excellent gimmicks, and the pastors best 3 point outline.  None of those things are wrong and none of those things are going to be demonized here, but none of those things are also the reason why we meet together and call ourselves “followers of Jesus” or “Christians”.

But the reason we are gathered as the church is not because of a holiday or a tradition or because we’re supposed to, but because a man walked this earth (many have done this), did amazing, miraculous things (many have done this, too), could not be found guilty of anything (no one else has done this), gave His life for the glory of God and for the salvation of mankind (wait for it…), then three days later rose again, after he was indeed (not figuratively) dead. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

The hope that we have because this happened is unimaginable, as our trust can now be placed firmly outside of our own hands and into the hands of a Savior and a God who made a way for our world to be healed and redeemed back into His arms.

Call it whatever you want, but just celebrate the right thing.