One of the things I love most about the Christian festival of Easter is that it is itself an illustration of what we celebrate on Good Friday and Easter Sunday: REDEMPTION
In a recent guest article in the Washington Post, American Pastor Mark Driscoll wrote this about the origins of Easter:
It’s most likely that the origins of Easter stem from early Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of the British Isles during the first millennium who celebrated a spring festival in the month of April in honor of their goddess Eostre, who represented fertility and the arrival of spring, light, and the rising dawn.
When Christian missionaries first arrived in Britain from the Roman Empire during this time, they incorporated some of the pre-existing traditional festivities into the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which took place in the same season. Basically, since everyone had the day off and it was a fun time to celebrate, the Christians then were unsure exactly when Jesus rose from death and so they chose to add their celebrations to the day. Over the centuries, the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection overtook Eostre in popularity, although the name stuck as “Easter.”
So, it seems that Easter became an illustration of the theme it was established to celebrate!
According to the online Oxford Dictionary, one of the meanings of the word 'redeem' is to 'save someone from sin, error or evil.' This is exactly what happened to the pagan festival of Eostre when Christian missionaries arrived in Britain. A festival in honour of a false god was redeemed for truth and turned into something worth celebrating.
Driscoll says there is a principle illustrated by the redemption of Easter that's worth remembering:
When it comes to cultural issues like this, we as Christians should view them through a simple rubric: reject, receive, or redeem? In this case, the early missionaries to the British Isles sought to redeem Easter rather than reject it or simply receive it. As a result, it became one of the centers of Christianity for many centuries and Eostre the goddess was all but forgotten.Happy Eostre? Nope! Happy EASTER!
Don't be afraid of saying it!
Personally, I can't think of a better way of honouring what Jesus achieved through his death and resurrection than celebrating it with a redeemed festival. As we rejoice in Jesus' triumph over sin, Satan and death this weekend, we do so as part of a festival that is the perfect illustration of what he came to do: redeem men and women for God.
