Rethinking Easter

In the traditional Easter celebration, we honor Jesus by —

* Buying brand new clothes to wear to church, especially white shoes and maybe matching purses.

* Eating candy eggs.

* Decorating eggs

* Having our kids search for Easter eggs.

* Telling the great story of the Easter bunny. Actually, I don’t even know what the story is. I just know the pictures all have bunnies carrying baskets of eggs.

And then we go to church and hear a 20-minute sermon about the resurrection — except a very few churches where they talk about the birth of Jesus just to make it clear Jesus wasn’t really born on December 25.

So how might we do Easter better? What should our holiday tradition really be?

Hmmm …

And on second thought, maybe the Easter music really should be a cappella

Easter Song

Artist(Band):Keith Green

Hear the bells ringing
They’re singing that you can be born again
Hear the bells ringing
They’re singing Christ is risen from the dead

The angel up on the tombstone
Said He has risen, just as He said
Quickly now, go tell his disciples
That Jesus Christ is no longer dead

Joy to the world,
He has risen, hallelujah
He’s risen, hallelujah
He’s risen, hallelujah

Hear the bells ringing
They’re singing that you can be healed right now
Hear the bells ringing, they’re singing
Christ, He will reveal it now

The angels, they all surround us
And they are ministering Jesus’ power
Quickly now, reach out and receive it
For this could be your glorious hour

Joy to the world,
He has risen, hallelujah
He’s risen, hallelujah
He’s risen, hallelujah, hallelujah

The angel up on the tombstone
Said He has risen, just as He said
Quickly now, go tell his disciples
That Jesus Christ is no longer dead

Joy to the world,
He has risen, hallelujah
He’s risen, hallelujah
He’s risen, hallelujah
Hallelujah

Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted
By: Thomas Kelly

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See him dying on the tree!
This is Christ, by man rejected;
Here, my soul, your Savior see.
He’s the long expected prophet,
David’s son, yet David’s Lord.
Proofs I see sufficient of it:
He’s the true and faithful Word.

Tell me, all who hear him groaning,
Was there ever grief like this?
Friends through fear his cause disowning,
Foes insulting his distress;
Many hands were raised to wound him,
None would intervene to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced him
Was the stroke that justice gave.

You who think of sin but lightly
Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed;
See who bears the awful load;
It’s the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,
Son of Man and son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation;
Here the refuge of the lost;
Christ, the rock of our salvation,
His the name of which we boast.
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on him their hope have built.

About Jay F Guin

My name is Jay Guin, and I’m a retired elder. I wrote The Holy Spirit and Revolutionary Grace about 18 years ago. I’ve spoken at the Pepperdine, Lipscomb, ACU, Harding, and Tulsa lectureships and at ElderLink.My wife’s name is Denise, and I have four sons, Chris, Jonathan, Tyler, and Philip. I have two grandchildren. And I practice law.
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7 Responses to Rethinking Easter

  1. Rob Sheridan says:



    thank you so much for this, Jay, believe it or not, I have never heard this song. It is very profound and truly Holy and georgeous.

    to include one instrument — from the writer of the song — I just think that this is very very cool, and I am now a Keith Green fan because of you:


  2. Jay Guin says:

    Rob,

    Great video! Thanks.

    (Is that Bacchantic orgiastic ecstasy I'm feeling? No, I think it's something else entirely.)

  3. Rob Sheridan says:

    LOL…..that threw me off at first….. —

    I got the shivers when listening to this, and my eyes welled up.

    I have some kind of weird thing where the Holy Spirit doesn't make me speak in tongues or jump up and down or shout, but rather gives me spine-shivers and makes me almost cry. It's not very macho, but I have no control over it.

    :>} In ten hours I will have been baptised for four years.

    Jay Guin says:

    Oh, wow. I assume you're in the US. So you were baptized around 2:00 in the morning on what is, this year, Easter. Very cool.

  4. paul says:

    New white clothes on Easter sounds "biblical" to me if one considers the white robes mentioned in revelation etc. However, Bunnies and eggs are definitely not Christian but are actually pagan. This holiday is named after the pagan holiday celebrated at roughly the same time of the year that gives homage and worship to the pagan gods of fertility (represented by rabbits and eggs), and that holiday is named Ishtar (pronounced "eas-ter"). We can thank the Catholic church of the sixteenth century for mixing a pagan holidays into Christian holidays, but we ought to remove the polluted aspect (in order to please God). I celebrate Resurrection Sunday (no bunnys or eggs etc) in my home and I hope the church gets educated on this, as many people just aren't aware, and reclaims the holiday for Christ and does the same.

    Have a Blessed Resurrection Sunday !!!

  5. Mike Ward says:

    We may get the name Easter from Eostre-month. A name for April named after a pagan goddess Eostre. However, whether or not Eostre ever really existed is a matter of dispute. I think the Christian monk Bede is the only source of her existance.

    However, Woden is a well attested Pagan god and the source of the name Wednesday (Woden's day). So I'll start worrying about the possibility that Easter is named for a Pagan goddess when everyone else starts worrying about the fact that most Churches of Christ have "Woden's day" night service every week.

  6. Bob Harry says:

    jay

    When the high priest went in to the Holies of holies to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat every year he was protected by the incense cloud before him .

    God only saw the pure white Linen of the interior or the room. He did not see the badger skin of the opening.

    Today when God see us he sees Jesus, the slain lamb that has risen.

    Easter like Christmas was the point in time that the angels finaly figured out what Good had in mind for mankind.

    Bob

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