Why I’m Not Really Celebrating Easter This Weekend…and How I’m Not a Heretic Because of It

Umm…I am seeing so many fellow bloggers posting about this Good Friday/Easter weekend, and here I am posting about music and movies. I feel a bit carnal. Actually, I am barely aware that it is Good Friday today, and it took the bloggers to remind me. So I thought it might be good to explain why.

There’s no protest going on here; no doctrinal disputes, no heresy, no “Easter-has-pagan-roots” thing going on. This year it’s simply a matter of what will carry the most meaning for us.

Easter and Passover are usually pretty close on the calendar, sometimes overlapping. This year, for some reason, they are not. Easter is extremely early this year, and Passover is in its usual spot in April. We know Christ was crucified during the Passover celebration…so why are we moving the dates all over the place?

The past few years, our dear ones Elly and Robert have hosted a Passover seder meal for our house church during this season. The seder, although Jewish in origin, definitely points to the Messiah, and we use the Passover seder to highlight the redemptive work of Jesus. It has been very meaningful for us, and although we certainly are more about authentic 21st-century Christian discipleship and not trying to duplicate Judaism…this ceremony speaks volumes to us about Jesus amid the Hebrew roots of our faith. As a house church, it is almost ludicrous to come up with a special Easter program (I can just see it…”Okay Robert, you have a beard and, um, are not fat, so you play Jesus again. Over there behind the couch is your tomb. ACTION.”). So the seder has become our annual Easter/Passover celebration.

And since it’s a Passover celebration…and since Christ actually died and was raised in the context of the Passover celebration…it makes more sense to us to observe an April Passover than an early Easter in March. We don’t want to do this twice, so we simply chose the one that made the most sense and carried the most meaning for us.

So…we really ARE celebrating the death and resurrection of our Lord. We’re just doing it next month. 🙂

I just wanted to get that off my chest in case anyone was thinking badly of me for not posting about Easter. Actually, it shouldn’t matter to me what you think…but still.

Have a great weekend, however you are celebrating.