Sunday night, after all the festivities from the Easter weekend had settled down, my wife and two boys were driving home, we asked our oldest why we celebrate Easter.
Despite hearing about it many times over the last several weeks, he responded, “Because the bunny left a basket.”
When I have picked him up from Sunday school, over the entire season of lent, he has proudly showed me a picture of Jesus that he has colored relating to one of many aspects of the resurrection.
Once he proclaimed, “Jesus is alive!”
Another time he said, “The soldiers took Jesus.”
Or the most recent, “the stone was rolled away and Jesus wasn’t there.”
Despite all of this emphasis put on the resurrection, the part that stood out, was the bunny bringing a basket.
That concerned me greatly.
Granted, he is only four, but still, the message, the most important as a Christian, was lost to a bunny and the promise of candy instead of a Savior and the promise of eternal life.
There really should be no comparison, but in the mind of a four year old, there is.
The positive side of me wants to see it as just an innocent part of the day, after all, isn’t it too graphic for a child to learn about the brutality of crucifixion? That can come later, let them hunt for eggs and eat candy for now.
Right?
The conspiratorial side of me wants to believe that it is a way that secular society has found a way to subvert our holiest of days by turning it into another cartoon and candy driven holiday void of Christian meaning.
For my children, I know that they will learn the true meaning of the holiday, just like they will know the true meaning of Christmas, despite the excitement generated by the coming of a paunchy prowler bearing gifts.
My concern is for the kids on the edges and beyond of true Christian households. Will they ever get the true meaning? Will they ever know the otherworldly joy of salvation over the temporal joy of cream filled chocolate eggs?
Should the church do a 180 on what has become a tradition, and in some cases outreach, by canceling egg hunts to the peril of alienating secular society by once again coming off as Ebenezer Scrooge? Should the church try to kill of the Easter Bunny?
Or, is it more loving to remind secular society what Jesus did for us and that they can have a much more meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ than a sugar filled weekend?
A Revival-lution needs to be drastic, but it also needs to be somewhat calculated. It has to be about the truth, but handled with kid gloves.
It's time for a Revival-lution!