Easter is Not About Bunnies

*Before you begin this post, please note some images here are not appropriate

for young children, thanks!*

It's Easter week.  We have celebrated as an extended family a little early this year.  Chocolate bunnies, egg hunts, and baskets full of goodies have been given.  It was a wonderful time of fun and fellowship with my family.  A wonderful time of watching the kids get excited about presents and spending time playing games with each other.  But, this is not the only place my mind and heart go to during the approaching days before Easter.  After all, Easter is not about bunnies.

Over the past two years I have had a new stirring in my inner being when Easter is approaching.  A stirring that represents a new-found appreciation, gratefulness, and humbleness of what all Christ has done for me.  A new place of reverence for the events we are supposed to be celebrating each year during Easter time.  No, friends, Easter is not about bunnies...it is about the triumph of all triumphs, the rising of Christ from death to life, from hell to Heaven, from the tomb to the ever-living LIFE.  Growing up I don''t think I ever fully grasped this concept.  I was too caught up in the Easter Bunny to give much thought about Christ.  Even as an adult I have found it super easy to focus on making sure I'm stocked up with plastic eggs and fake green grass for the kids instead of taking the moments to allow the Truth of this critical event to penetrate my soul and spirit once again.  It's not that I haven't heard the true message of Easter before, but my newer found freedoms God has spoken into me have just heightened the magnitude of my appreciation levels to new places. 

If you haven't figured it out by now, I am a visual learner.  I find myself understanding concepts and events much quicker if I have visual aids like photos, videos, demos, etc. to stand in the gap of the words being spoken to me.  For those of you out there like me, I hope this post will help you better grasp the events we are celebrating.  No doubt even these images and videos will do it no justice, but at least for me it helps me work past traditional and "cute" Easter images like this....

to get me to the heart of the real story...a holy man--the Son of God--who died on a cross of shame for me, a fierce battle fought against the most evil of all evils, the rightful claim of the keys of hell, and the victorious return of Christ from hell itself to offer His freedom and gift to each and every one of us.

Perhaps you are like me and have been made a bit desensitized from the events of Easter.  Typically I see images such as these to describe the different aspects of the story.

First of all, there is Satan:

Then, there is hell:

Next we have Jesus:

And His crucifixion:

His fight against the enemy:

And then finally his victory over death:

 

That sums it up, right?  Wow.  I'm just not sure that does anything for me.  Not sure that really gives me goosebumps or makes me understand the importance of the victory He supposedly gained for me.  It doesn't really make me grateful or humbled.  It doesn't seem to capture the pure evilness of Satan, the pure agony of hell, the fierceness of the battle in hell, or the miracle of life coming back from the dead.  It also does not convey a sense of the magnitude of the love Christ has for me.  When looking at images like these, I tend to think thoughts more along the lines of "Well, I'm happy to have Jesus in my heart and I'm glad he defeated evil so I could live with Him in Heaven for eternity.  I'm sure his death was gruesome and the events afterwards miraculous, but I just don't get it."  Anyone else?

This isn't what I really want.  What I really want is to know down in my very marrow that God loves me, and to do that I need to connect on a more "real" level with what all He did for me on that Easter time so long ago.  I need to see what He fought against for me.  I need to remember He not only risked His life for me, but He GAVE His life for me.  I want to know, as best I can, the extreme gravity of the atmosphere of hell that He went to, fought through, and defeated FOR ME.  Because His love for me was that intense, that passionate, that serious.  Seeing images like these next ones help put at least a bit more of reality into my picture of what Easter is all about...

Jesus, the Lover of my Soul...

loved me so much and wanted me to come into His Freedom so much that he died on a cross for me...

He went to the darkness of death and hell for me...

Puts a whole new perspective on the cute little church song about the gates of hell not prevailing, huh

He actually fought Satan for me...

Are you starting to get uncomfortable now?  Are you starting to get the picture of the literal hell Jesus went through in order to show you how much He loves you?  I look at these pictures--mere depictions of what might really be--and am humbled to speechlessness.  I think if I had one actual look at the fires of hell engulfing fellow humans or a fraction of a glimpse at the horror of Satan himself, I would be scared to death.  Literally.  I would be so filled with intense fear that my heart would simply stop beating...I mean, come on, just looking at these pictures has me completely on edge.

If the photos have not done it for you, perhaps this will.  I know this is not Jesus...nor is it Satan, but whenever I watch these scenes from the popular film series, "Lord of the Rings",  I can not help but get choked up at the parallel of the stories.  To know that someone would be willing to sacrifice their life for mine and for all others before me and yet to come gives me chills like no other.  It is the ultimate story of the Hero protecting and saving His bride from all evil and it gives a more realistic interpretation of the power Good has over Evil because of the sacrifice of One...

Like Gandolf in this video clip, Jesus faced all horror, all fear, all evil at it's worst without hesitation.  He dove head first with all power and all authority into the darkness of death and hell to fight and kill the Beast once and for all.  And He did it all for me.  And you...and your neighbor Gary, and your uncle Henry, and your sister Marcy, and your librarian Nancy, and your kids' bus driver Tom, and the clerk at the grocery, and the semi driver in front of you, an your _________ and your __________ (you fill in the blanks).  Get the picture?  Jesus Christ loves us all so much that he did the unthinkable, unlivable to us humans--he conquered death itself out of the power of the love He has for each and every one of us.  And when He did, He came back with these...

With the keys of hell in hand, He overcame death and breathed again the breath of eternal living...

He did all of this so that those who believe in Him, accept His sacrifice, and are gifted by His grace, forgiveness, and mercy will have eternal life with Him

And that, my friends, is Easter.  The remembrance, the awe of what He has done, the thankfulness for His sacrifice, the all-due glory for His triumph and victory over all evil, the celebration of a life we NOW can have because of the freedom He gained for us, and the anticipation for the life to come when we die and never have to face the horrors He faced, but instead be ushered directly into the presence of an Almighty Loving God...

  

I pray that as I stand in my church on Easter Sunday, raising my hands in worship, and partaking in Communion, I will be reflecting not on Easter bunnies, eggs, lilies, or even the family Easter meal still needing the last touches, but instead solely on the unfathomable sacrifice and gift Jesus has given me.  That I will be humbly honoring Him for the Warrior He was in death and the Victor He is life.  That I will believe afresh in the core of my being that because I have Christ, I have nothing left to fear, I have everything to live for, and I have so many others around me who still need to know that same freedom.

Jesus, come this Easter, and fan a new flame of freshness in each of us that ends up igniting a fire so widespread that nothing and no one will be untouched by Your love.  Thank You for all you have done and continue to do out of your love for us.  Amen.