So much of how we celebrate Easter is cute and light and sweet- candy and bunnies and pastel colors and egg hunts and family. One of the things that separates Christmas from Easter is that Easter holds on to much of its religious and Christian origins, and reconciling the conflicting sweet image from culture with the crucifixion that is at the heart of Easter can be very difficult. In the Easter message, the God of the universe killed his son publicly on a tree. For many people, that message is just too hard to swallow because it paints a picture of God that is ugly and sadistic. What we find out about Easter from Scripture is that the ugliness of the cross lead to the beauty of the resurrection, and that has life-changing implications for every day we are alive. The events of the first Easter place our feet on a path of peace and hope with God, which means we can have hope and meaning as long as we are alive- and beyond!
