One beautiful thing about Easter holy days is that they are not cluttered with cultural add-ons.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the festive traditions of Christmas and many of its, if not quite scripture related at least widely beloved, add-ons.
However, at least for Protestants, the Easter season doesn’t have as many nostalgic “hooks” to hang traditions on. Nor does it have a lot of retail commerce associated with it—except for some new spring clothing, candies and all manner of bunny manifestations. In some ways, this is a good thing, as Easter’s biblical DNA is hard to obscure. No springtime version of a Santa-like character has ever stolen the scene from the Man of Sorrows dying on the Cross for the sins of the World who is then bodily resurrected from the dead to open the doors of Heaven that whosoever believes in Him…
No doubt, its substance is daunting. It is a most serious set of holidays.
Perhaps this is why many of us think of these days as important, but haven’t found them sticky enough to engage with all that deeply. Maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. We want to invite you to a deeper Easter season this year – beginning with some sticky events during Holy Week.
If you can, give priority to attending The Vine’s Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and (of course!) Easter Sunday worship gatherings. Immerse yourself in the Scriptures, before and during, perhaps reading Genesis 3, Isaiah 53, Mark 11-15 and John 13-14 on replay. And then read John 20 early on Easter morning!
Here’s a great real-time narrative capturing the mood and events of the original Holy Week.
All shall be well,
Owen