Easter

From
March 28, 2025

Easter is great! It’s a beautiful, solemn, meaningful holiday…celebrated by eating massive amounts of candy shaped like farm animals. Seriously, who decided that the best way to commemorate the Lord’s resurrection is to bite the ears off an oversized chocolate bunny? And why, for that matter, must these chocolate rabbits be hollow? I picture some candy executive gleefully rubbing his hands together, saying, “Let’s fill children with hope…and air.”

And then there are jellybeans. The cruel thing about jellybeans is that they come in fifty flavors, and three of them are always a mistake. You think you’re popping strawberry or cherry, but surprise—it’s bubblegum-flavored soap. This is how we teach kids the valuable Easter lesson of disappointment.

Of course, there’s also the traditional egg hunt. Nothing says “celebration of eternal life” quite like searching the damp grass for plastic eggs. Don’t get me wrong: I think egg hunts are a wonderful thing for little kids. But what’s even more wonderful is the Easter miracle that occurs a week later when a lawnmower discovers an undiscovered egg. Ever see jellybeans and plastic shards fly at 120 mph? It’s festive, yet terrifying.

Then there’s the biology question: rabbits laying eggs. Did nobody take a single science class? At least Santa’s elves make a sort of biological sense. But egg-laying rabbits? Why?

But despite all this candy confusion, egg-hunting madness, and questionable biology, Easter always circles back around to a simple, powerful idea: new birth. Regeneration! That’s the hidden beauty behind all this sugary chaos. We all need fresh starts, second chances, and hopeful tomorrows. Easter reminds us—often amid pastel-colored absurdity—that resurrection is real, renewal is possible, and hope isn’t just an empty chocolate bunny.

Easter is–if I can take a moment and be quite serious–the celebration of the greatest miracle in history: the glorification of the Lord’s Divine Human. And with it, the subjugating of the hells, the reordering of the heavens, and the establishment of the Christian Church. And layered in with all of that, we also have a step-by-step representative illustration of the path our own lives must take if we are to be born again as angels in heaven. It’s deep, it’s breathtaking, it’s vital, it’s complex, and it’s literally the key to your salvation.

So, this Easter, go ahead and savor the weirdness. Bite the bunny ears, brave the jellybeans, and dodge plastic eggs flying out of your mower—but while you do, remember this joyful, messy holiday really means something. No matter how absurd life gets, new life—and new hope—is always on the horizon. The Lord is with you always, even to the end of the age.

Happy Easter, friends. And good luck with the jellybeans.

Rev. Glenn “Mac” Frazier, Pastor
Washington New Church, 2025.03.25