Merry Easter?

So here it is, merry Easter, everybody's having fun. Look to the future now, it's only just begun...

We're hardly inundated with Easter songs. We spend only a fraction celebrating Easter that we do Christmas. We certainly don't have an 'Easter eve'. We don't even have an Easter version of Santa. Overall it seems fair to say that the way Easter is celebrated tends to be far more muted that Christmas. Should we be surprised though?

Clearly to the Christian there is much more to be excited by at Easter, but in a secular society there is much less appeal in the Easter story. At Christmas we have angels, a baby born in a manger, shepherds, and wise men. At Easter we have a man brutally executed, we have a claim of resurrection from the dead, and we have the utterly offensive claim underlying this: that we humans have got ourselves into a mess from which we cannot extract ourselves. That our flat-out rebellion against God has earnt us a fair wage of death and eternal separation from God under his judgment. That we have been judged unworthy of life, but that God himself subjected himself to the hands of us rebels, willing offering up his life in our place to give us the hope of reconciliation to God. Hardly an idea that sits comfortably with us.

So, as we enjoy another Easter Sunday, let us remember the true significance of Easter, in amongst all the eggs (chocolate). That some 2000 years ago a tomb was found empty, save for some folded grave clothes, and that its occupant (Jesus) was gone and alive. That is by far the most important fact in history, and it is why Easter is the most significant holiday we have.