There are some great reasons to go to church on Easter Sunday, even if you aren’t a practicing Christian or religious.
Easter is the most significant Christian holiday of the year. Celebrated worldwide every spring, it’s a holiday that – much like Christmas – has its origins in religious observation. But also like Christmas, in the centuries since its earliest observance it’s grown into a culturally-celebrated holiday with non-religious elements added to it. Many people who would describe themselves as non-religious still take time to observe both Christmas and Easter.
Easter’s origins… and additions.
Easter began as a day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. God’s only son bore the weight of everything wrong in the world, gave up his life for it, and then rose from the grave in the ultimate cosmic act of defiance. Light conquering the darkness, good triumphing over evil, life over death… what could be more worth celebrating than that?!
Up until the 4th century, Easter was observed by Christians two days after Passover, which meant it could fall on any day of the week (“Easter Tuesday,” anyone?). Then in 325 AD the Council of Nicaea declared that going forward, Easter was to be observed on the first Sunday after the spring equinox.
The Council of Nicaea also established the season of Lent, a 40-day period (not including Sundays) of fasting and repentance leading up to Easter. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and continues until Easter Sunday. All the more reason to celebrate on Easter Sunday – forty days is a long time!
In the 13th century, Christians began incorporating egg-coloring into their Easter celebrations. While its origins were pagan, this tradition also had a christian symbolism to it: the yolk represented new life in Jesus through his emergence from the tomb, and the eggs were dyed red, symbolizing Christ’s blood.
In the 1700’s, American families began to embrace the “Osterhase” tradition brought by German immigrants, where a spring hare would lay colorful eggs for children to find on Easter morning.
Fun fact: did you know that the Easter Egg Roll event that happens the Monday after Easter on the White House lawn started in 1878? While not explicitly religious, many Christians see the rolling egg as a symbol of the stone at Jesus’ tomb being rolled away.
Easter: the “Super Bowl” for churches?
In America, church attendance swells on Easter Sunday. Driven by infrequent attenders making sure not to miss an important holiday, families inviting friends and relatives before having a meal together, and “Chreasters” – those who don’t normally attend church but always make sure to be there on Christmas Eve and Easter – most churches see their highest attendance on Easter Sunday.
Comedian John Crist had some fun with the energy pastors all put into prepping for “their Super Bowl”:
Jokes aside, churches put a lot into preparing their Easter Sunday services. If you’re going to celebrate the holiest of days on the calendar, you want to make sure it’s epic for everyone!
There’s more to Easter for Christians than just going to church.
Celebrating the victory of life over death alongside lots of other people is an amazing experience, but it’s also a deeply personal one.
Christians often use Lent as an opportunity to grow in faith by leaning into spiritual growth practices like prayer, scripture reading, fasting, and meditation. And with a focus on repentance, it can feel like a long and weighty season.
Then, on Easter Sunday, that weight is lifted. That alone is reason to celebrate!
But the main reason Christians celebrate Easter with so much joy is that it marks the day that Jesus, the Son of God, overcame death by rising from the dead.
It’s not just a symbolic act; the meaning for Christians is in the act of Jesus taking all of our brokenness and the ways we turn away from God fully upon himself: all of our guilt, all of our shame, all of our fears and anxieties… and in the ultimate act of love, carrying them into the grave.
Then he conquered death by rising from the grave, never to return.
Through his death and resurrection, Jesus makes us fully whole in ways we just can’t understand without him. The apostle Paul states it this way: For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21).
As our Associate Pastor Josiah Kish described on Ash Wednesday, there’s something mystical about that. While the truth of what Jesus did is life-changing when we embrace it, the full understanding of it may just always lie outside our ability to comprehend.
But for Christians, that doesn’t make it any less meaningful. In fact, maybe even more so.
There’s more to Easter for non-Christians, too.
So what does that mean if you aren’t sure you believe any of that yet? Or if it’s not familiar to you at all? What’s in a church service on Easter for you?
For starters, it’s a chance to explore something that just might start you down the path towards spiritual growth.
Churches may go out of their way to make you feel comfortable on Easter Sunday, but the Easter message starts with some uncomfortable questions.
Who hasn’t looked at the world around us and wondered, why is it this way? Haven’t we all at some point taken a look inside ourselves and wondered why am I this way?
Growth of almost any kind happens when we step outside of our comfort zones, whether we’re talking about exercising our bodies or our minds. A better understanding of the message of Easter offers hope to anyone who wrestles with that deep feeling that something just isn’t right, whether that feeling is coming from looking at the world around you, or looking deep inside yourself.
We’ve all hurt someone, either knowingly or unknowingly. We’ve turned a blind eye to injustice, or shifted the blame when we should’ve taken it ourselves. We’ve hurt ourselves or others in ways we don’t understand, and maybe even deny.
We’ve let anxiety and fear take a stronger foothold in our lives than it was ever meant to. Honestly, it’s a lot to bear.
But the beautiful thing about Easter is that it doesn’t leave us there; it only starts there.
Spiritual growth – while not a replacement for dealing with mental health issues – can help us to handle the things life throws at us in better, hope-filled and helpful ways.
Spiritual growth is a long game, and it takes regular practice. But it has to start somewhere, right?
What better way to start than with the most hope-filled, joyous day on the calendar?
Easter is a celebration of mercy and grace over guilt and shame. Of justice over wrongdoings. Of assurance over fear. Of life over death. That’s a lot to celebrate!
Easter points the way to a better life and a better world that begins with a spiritual change in us.
As a non-Christian, you might be curious about God, Jesus, or the Bible. What would it be like to investigate that a little more?
Maybe you just want to grow as a person by gaining a better understanding of what it means to be a person of faith.
Or maybe you aren’t as familiar as you think you are with the story of Jesus, the “why behind the what” of the things Christians believe. It’s a compelling narrative and worth exploring.
The beauty of Easter is that it acknowledges our brokenness but doesn’t leave us stuck in it. And it doesn’t point to us as the answer to it. Easter points to Jesus and how he makes us whole in ways that are more beautiful than we could possibly imagine.
One big question.
They say that the most important question any person can ask in life is “who is God?” Easter celebrates a God who has done and continues to do beautiful, powerful, life-changing things in us… and through us, in the world. A God of the universe who is both personal and knowable.
So if you’re someone who is a little curious about what the Christian faith has to offer, checking out church on Easter Sunday just might be the perfect way to start.
There are plenty of ways to do that in person or online. If you want to learn more about what Grace Chapel offers, click on over to our Easter page.
Photo by Brian Wegman
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