I listened to a sermon on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was preached to a congregation which met at 6am at the church outside on Easter morning. To them, the sunrise was a reminder of the dawn of Jesus’ resurrection of the body. I would be embarrassed to ask the members if they worshiped the sun god. I would cringe to think that they worshiped the Easter bunny. They came to the meeting specifically to hear the good news of Jesus’ resurrection and how it affects them. They came to be inspired and encouraged and fed with the Word of God.
Later on TV that morning, my wife and I watched “Leading the Way” Pastor Yousef give a Resurrection Day sermon based on “and Peter” in Mark 16:7. The main message was the difference in Peter’s life before the resurrection and after. Peter thought he was washed up because he had denied the Lord three times earlier. The Lord rose from the dead and went out to him. He was the God of second chances. It was an inspiring sermon and I’m sure many viewers who were holding back because of some failure were inspired to rededicate their lives to Jesus with hope.
In my nearly 40 years as a Christian, I have read hundreds of books, seen many Christian-themed movies, and read many internet articles. If the church is full of people who worship the sun god or the Easter bunny, I’ve never seen a presentation that fed that urge. They presented Jesus instead.
This is to say that I don’t understand why Christians cannot observe Easter or Christmas—in the Lord. Santa Claus was never a prominent figure in my early life. He was just a figure in movies and TV specials. The Tooth Fairy didn’t get much space with me, and neither did the Easter bunny, except when chocolate was shaped like a bunny. But then again, chocolate was shaped into many other things, too, so that lost its impact. Yet I’ve heard of others who grew up thinking all these figures—and Jesus Christ—were real. When they found Santa Clause a phony, the Tooth Fairy was bogus, and the Easter bunny just a symbol of fertility, guess what—the intangible Jesus went by the wayside too.
Perhaps you reject Easter and Christmas because of their pagan beginnings. Yet when God saves us, He does a richer work within, which we learn of over time as we study the scriptures. Two of those things are gaining the mind of Christ and a sanctified imagination, an imagination used to glorify God.
With these two things, we see the world differently. We keep seeing Jesus. We see the rising of the sun and different connotations are made. Some see a beautiful sunrise; some are reminded of the dawn when Jesus rose from the dead. A cross pendant was a beautiful piece of jewelry, but now it’s a reminder of the love of God, which He demonstrated when Jesus died for us on the cross while we were yet sinners. We see a large tree with a wide expanse of branches and are reminded of the fruitful people in Psalm 1 who meditate in the word day and night. We see a large mountain and are reminded that our God is a Rock which cannot be moved. In the shower we are reminded to ask for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the living waters. Sermons are rife with illustrations from daily life that point us to Christ. Jesus used many physical objects to illustrate the spiritual truths of God. This is a sanctified imagination at work. This is reasoning bathed in the Word of God.
Regarding eating food that was sacrificed to idols back in the day, Paul the apostle wrote, “There is no God but one” (1 Corinthians 8:4). Read the next few verses. So it is with Easter and Christmas. We know, in spite of their pagan beginnings and symbols, there is only one God. Our sanctified imaginations have redefined those objects, redeeming them to reflect the majesty of God who created them for His own glory. He created this universe as a closed system. He made no rivals to His throne. There is no God but one. The disciple who rests in God as his Father knows this (Romans 8:15-17).
The pagans worshiped the creation instead of the Creator. Now as Christians we put it back in its proper place. God made bunnies. God made eggs. Now we cuddle the furry critters as pets. We give thanks at breakfast for the eggs. All things in nature and life are of God.
I guess I’m trying to say that there is a new way of seeing things with our eyes when having the mind of Christ. What did Jesus see when He saw a sunrise? The beauty of His natural order? We see Christ in all things. Remember the essential trait of our new nature in Christ: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God” (2 Cor. 5:17, 18). The old things, the historical pagan things, are all gone away. We are looking at things from a new perspective now. All things are of God, not of the old us, the old viewpoints. We are entirely new now. Why would we look back on historical records? We who live with Christ are living in the here and now, according to the truth of scripture, and find it eternal life.
