Every year at Christmas time, we hear the same clichés:  “Keep Christ In Christmas!”  “It’s Merry Christmas, NOT Happy Holidays!”  “Jesus Is the Reason for the Season!”  And of course, there is the never ending rant about Christmas being too commercialized and the loss of focus of what Christmas is supposed to be about.

But what about Easter?  Why do we not hear “Keep Christ in Easter”???  Because it doesn’t sound as poetic?  Is it because many of us would rather focus on the miracle of a tiny baby boy coming into the world, instead of the drama and trauma of what LED to Easter?  Is it because babies lying in a manger make a much prettier picture than that of a bloodied man being executed as a common criminal?  Or is it because we can all identify with Christ’s birth much more easily than with his death?  We have all experienced the joy of holding, loving, and caring for babies, up close and personal, while none of us have even come close to witnessing a crucifixion?

Jesus chose to take our sins upon himself.  Jesus paid the price for us.  By His stripes we are healed, made whole, SAVED.

Let’s face it folks, without the crucifixion, without the RESURRECTION, without EASTER, we wouldn’t celebrate Christmas at all.  As we enter the most dramatic, and important 4 days of the Christian Year, let us not forget, amidst the Easter Bunnies, colorful eggs, and baskets loaded with candy, that Jesus is the reason for not only the Christmas Season, but THIS, the most holy and important season of the year.

 

Let us remember that Jesus is not only the reason for the Easter Season, but He should be the reason for our very lives.  Because of His death and resurrection, because of Easter, we have life in this world, and in the world to come.