Trimming the Easter sail...

(1Corinthians 11:24) …Do this in remembrance of me."

No differently to common routine, it’s that time of the year again when society is caught up with another commercial event, the Easter holidays; a time for Easter bunny adventures; the hiding of Easter eggs. A fun time for the kids! Sadly the general emphasis of Christ’s death has been replaced with chocolate bunnies!

At times I suppose we are also prone to make mountains out of molehills, so let me travel with caution, but travel I must! It is imperative that I reach my conclusion about this time of the year. It is time once again to trim the sail, so that we do not veer too far off course and if we have we can once again set the correct course.

When we come together as the body of Christ (the church) in remembrance of Him (the breaking of bread service); WE REMEMBER what the Lord Jesus achieved on our behalf by dying on a cruel Roman cross, an event that happened just over two thousand years ago. Have we not received clear instruction on how to remember Him and more specifically we are instructed to remember His death? “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” (1Corinthians 11:26)   

So then, why must our emphasis change when we are with family and friends when we deal with exactly the same event? How many of us make a point, and I mean stop the goings-on and explain to the kids what this holiday actually represents. God sending His Son to die in our stead! It has nothing to do with chocolate bunnies! The enemy has introduced that trap and we lap it up like thirsty dogs lapping up water with no real thought given to it, why? I have heard many people, especially mothers, give these type of answers, “because it is fun for the kids”, but how much fun was it dying on a cruel Roman cross? An emphasis shift of what we actually are called to remember, to kids having fun, and us as parents shirking our responsibility to teach our kids. Shame on us!  

You may be thinking that I am being a little harsh…

Let’s strip it down and then you can make your own deduction, I have obviously already made mine.

Let us go back in time, before God sent his Son to live on earth as a man and look at what God’s requirements were for His people. It was the time of rescue, God saved from slavery. And yet to escape death they needed to carry out an instruction. Their journey through the Wilderness was full of detailed instruction which the people needed to pay careful attention to in order to have a relationship with their God. There is much we can learn from God’s Law about His person, if we would just take the time to make a study of it.

Let us look at an event that the Jews still celebrate today, the Passover. Do we realize what a somber time that actually was? It was a time of heart-break for so many! “"Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again.” (Exodus 11:5-6) - God gives us a glimpse of time past of what He would do in the future, which has already played out some 2000 years ago, to save sinners. How would He achieve this? He would have His own son killed to set us (believers) free. There was no other way to break the shackles of sin! It was a very solemn time for the God-head! God the Father turning His back on His Son, the Son crying “my God, my God why have you forsaken me”! With God the Holy Spirit crossing the “t’s” and dotting the “I’s”.

If we study the gospels we see the use of bread and wine, no mention of sugary substances, in fact on the contrary, when we study what was required from the early Jews when celebrating the “Passover” they were commanded to stay away from yeast, the bread they needed to bake and eat was unleavened bread. And it is obvious that Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism and in fact its position in the calendar; even the words, Easter and Passover have very similar meanings in many languages.

Let us now look at God’s requirement for His people concerning the Passover Feast and then we will look at the Lord Jesus’ requirements to His disciples and then there should be no more confusion regarding this marvellous time for the Christian.

"This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.” (Exodus 12:14) – (Known as the feast of unleavened bread) - Note the instruction; “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.” (Exodus 12:15), they needed to eat unleavened bread for seven days if not they would be cut off from God. But they were firstly instructed to remove all the leaven out of their houses. It was a time when the law was in full swing, the Catholic faith still practices Lent. However this is not God’s instruction to His church…

The Lord Jesus had this to say at what is commonly known at the “Last Supper”; “Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body."” (Matthew 26:26) – It was bread they ate and not dessert! No chocolate and certainly nothing to do with eggs or rabbits!

It may also be time for the Christian to remove the unwanted leaven in our lives…

Why then has this tradition entered the realm of society with such proficiency? Apart from the commercial aspect of greed, people making merchandise from this event. I suppose we can in some form draw a comparison of how they cast lots for His cloths; “so they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be." This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, "They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." So the soldiers did these things,” (John 19:24)

But the main point of the diversion is to take our eyes off Christ and to focus on something else, Easter eggs and bunnies! You see, Satan has taken the Lord’s teachings and used them to his advantage; all he needs to do is introduce a little leaven; “And he cautioned them, saying, "Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."” (Mark 8:15)

There is much more I could say on this, but I trust I have made my point, what then will you do with this glorious event; today the day the Lord Jesus died for sinners like you and me! Will we be caught up with the hype of Easter eggs hunts and bunnies or will we make our stand for Christ, removing the leaven and remembering Him?

Signing off

Tyrone