I’m going to say it: Easter is the worst holiday. Let’s be honest, after the month of Christmas cheer, carols, movie marathons, and family traditions; kids in Harford County are then given a day of presents and awesome food. What can beat that? Christmas scores way higher on the list of things any Marylander would like to take part in. But here’s the thing, you don’t even have to go to the king holiday (Christmas) to beat poor old Easter. Halloween brings the fun! Whether you are dressing up as ghosts or old reformation characters, it’s a day of decorations, get-togethers, and candy! Even Thanksgiving—the day built around the not-so-exciting concept of gratitude—gets the fam together for Momma’s best cookin’.

What does Easter have? Well…a bunny…lays (?) some eggs for you to find. Some of them are chocolate and some of them…are just eggs. But wait, there’s more. Don’t forget the thin plaid shirts, girly wall art, and confusing interactions around the “He is risen” thing. There isn’t even a season of Easter. It’s just a hit-and-run holiday that we secretly wish was Christmas part 2. And now we have COVID-19 to deal with! Cancel the egg hunt and dump a truckload of awkward on that Easter Service. Should we even do Easter this year?

Well, the answer is yes. We should do Easter and the awkward Easter Service. The problem isn’t actually with the holiday itself; the problem is with our lame attempt at celebration! In reality, Easter is the best of all holidays. We have more reason to party it up on Easter than on any other day of the year! Really. It’s time to bring out the good stuff. Let’s make underrated-Easter the big one this year!

Why? On Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul gives us some solid reasons to rejoice. Here is one in verse 17:

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

Woah now. Without the resurrection, there is no salvation in Christ! We would not be forgiven. We would not be saved. There would be no Gospel!

If you are a Christian, at some point you heard and believed the Gospel. In other words, you trusted that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ have made a way for God to wash you of your sins and pour out His grace upon you. In that grace is peace with God and adoption into His family. If that was taken away—if there was no resurrection—then there is no salvation and no Gospel. Christianity itself would collapse. That’s huge! How are we only celebrating this with chalky chocolate bunnies!?

Paul goes on to say in verses 14 & 15 that if Christ wasn’t raised then “our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God.” All those life-changing sermons, the sweet worship music, fun youth groups, the warmth of family tradition, the camaraderie at church, it all gets tossed too because your faith in Jesus would have all been pointless without the resurrection. The Bible as well! Paul, who wrote a good amount of the New Testament, said that the apostles would have been misrepresenting God. There would be no solid Word of God to base our lives upon. Yikes!

I think you get the picture but let me throw one more in here from verse 19.

“If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

The resurrection showed the world that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. Sins result in death, so when Christ walked out of that tomb, He conquered death itself. All who put their faith in Christ share in this victory. Christians share in the hope that this world is not the end, but God will resurrect our bodies just like He resurrected Jesus’ body. We call that Heaven—living with God forever in resurrected bodies. As you can guess, that wouldn’t happen without Easter. Without Jesus rising from the dead, we would have no hope and instead should be pitied.

Do you see why Easter deserves full-throttle celebrating! Christ’s resurrection accomplished everything! I write this with zero exaggeration: without Easter, Christianity is graceless, the Gospel is baseless, salvation is empty, the Bible is faulty, and life is both pointless and hopeless.

We have some changes to make. First, let the glory and joy of Easter hit you personally. Christ was raised from the dead so that He could offer you salvation, life, hope, peace, and eternity with Him! This is truly good news. Secondly, let’s give Easter the celebration that it deserves. Thanksgiving gets a big Turkey dinner? Eat something better for Easter! Halloween gets a house full of decorations and sweet treats? Bring out more decorations and better treats! Christmas captures our hearts with manger scenes, songs, and gifts? Let’s take it to the next level!

Maybe that sounds extreme. There is probably a little more sugar than necessary on Halloween as it is. And Christmas takes a big enough chunk of that salary as it is. But I think you get the point. Easter is the best, so let’s reflect that in our celebration. It’s a holiday revolution! A biblical one. In the Old Testament God assigns feast days to commemorate His great works. He could have assigned fast days—as in “no food.” But the Lord in His kindness linked the joy of remembrance with the joy of food, family, and tradition. We glorify God by rejoicing in what He has done over some off-the-charts cookin’.

So let’s glorify God for the resurrection by celebrating on all cylinders. My church will be meeting in-person and online at 9:15am and 11:00am. If you don’t have a church home come check out Cornerstone Community Church right here in Joppa, Maryland. We are doing the mask thing, but, by now, wearing a COVID-19 mask isn’t all that awkward. Not as awkward as that pink button down your Mom bought you to wear this year at least. Wherever you end up, make sure you bring out the good stuff this Easter!