Resurrection Celebration

Why do we celebrate Easter?  Spoiler alert, it’s not because of eggs and bunnies.

Some Christians go so far as to ban bunnies and chicken fruit from their Easter celebrations.  I don’t think that’s necessary, but its worth pointing out that those images did indeed come along way after the celebration of Easter.

Easter is about the resurrection.  This is the reason we use images like the incredibly fertile bunny, as well as eggs -a symbol of coming life.

But let’s be clear.  Easter isn’t just about the resurrection of Jesus.

That’s right.  There is way more to the story.  We are told that Jesus was the “firstborn from the dead.”  What does firstborn mean if it doesn’t mean there are more to follow? And hang on a minute, there is that famous story about a guy named Lazarus who came back.  Why isn’t he the firstborn?  Didn’t Jesus come back to life after he did?

The resurrection of Jesus was of a different sort.  Jesus didn’t just come back to life.  He was “recreated.”

The long storyline of the Bible portrays a God who made things “very good,” and a humanity who broke this creation.  But in the end of the story, God restores everything that was broken back into the way it was always supposed to be.

The resurrection of Jesus is the very first restoration.  In his resurrection Jesus remains fully human, but the kind of fully human that God is making all of of us again one day.  This is why he is the “firstborn” from the dead.

This is why we celebrate.   We celebrate not merely a risen savior, but a promise of new creation and a hope of restoration.

This is why it is ok to lament or mourn the brokenness of our world, the fear in our hearts, and the pain in our lives.  But we don’t mourn as people without hope.  Because there is a very real promise or restoration from all of that.

We have a firstborn, and we are to follow.

Celebrate this with us at 10AM on Easter Sunday.