Easter: Stop Having Fun
Every year around Easter, I hear the same few complaints from well-meaning people in the church about the pagan roots of Easter. These same people are equally noisy around Christmas, so for all intents and purposes, these same arguments apply to that as well. The argument is simple: Stop trying to enforce your version of the holiday on everyone else.
Paul had to deal with a similar situation when he was advising the early church on how to deal with Jews who still wanted to celebrate the holy days they had grown up with. They wanted to keep Passover, and the different feasts, for religious reasons.
These Jews tried to force the new Christians to worship the way they did, and celebrate the way they did. Paul’s answer to this problem is simple. In Colossians 2:16, after pointing out that the Christian is saved by Christ, and all of our sins were nailed to the cross, he says this, “Therefore, let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.”
If, for example, a Christian wishes to use the secular Easter icons of colored eggs to teach their children about Christ’s resurrection, we are not to judge them. If they wish to use the Easter Rabbit because it’s cute and colorful and kids will pay attention to it, we are not to judge them.
Likewise, if a Christian wishes to cast out all of those things, thinking them frivolous or harmful, we are not to judge them.
I hope at this point you’ve identified a pattern. As long as you are not sinning, you can celebrate the holiday in any way you wish!
Now, I know many people will say they’re not trying to force anyone to do anything, but I’d like to ask a question. What is the point of being judgemental? The point, logically, is to apply pressure to a person to get them to change their ways. That’s what a judgemental nature is supposed to do, it’s what social pressure is designed to do. No, you may not be passing a law or writing to your mayor to ban the Easter egg roll, but you are trying to coerce your friends and neighbors not to participate in it through your attitude and your words.
This is why we are called not to judge on these things in the first place, and not to judge lest we also be judged. It is a tool of coercion that only God has the wisdom and strength to wield appropriately.
