William T. Robinson, Jr.
For those of us who are practicing Christians, we are upon the holiest celebration of our faith. The week preceding Easter is perhaps the holiest week for Christians, culminating with Easter. It is with Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ who defeated and conquered death three days after his own physical death and burial. It is a fundamental tenet and belief of the Christian religion that it was through Jesus Christ’s resurrection that the penalty for man’s sin was paid—purchasing for all who believe in him eternal life in Jesus Christ.
With the holiness and sacredness associated with this season, it isn’t surprising why you may find some people perplexed with the emphasis that is put on the commercialism of Easter celebrations just like Christmas, especially with the pagan practice of Easter egg hunts. While this is fun and exciting for so many children, the sad part is the whole concept of celebrating the true purpose of Easter is often not made known to so many children.
Once again, man has commercialized one of Christians’ most celebrated holy occasions for profit. All too often, more emphasis is put on the Easter bunny than Christ. While no harm is meant with the fun, excitement and joy children look for in Easter associated activities, just as much attention should be focused on the significance of this most holy occasion.
Christians are taunted by other religions for our lackadaisical and sometimes hypocritical approach to adhering to our religious and spiritual occasions and events, especially in the present Trump era where all morality and ethics seem to have been cast aside. Too many times the holiness of our celebrated Christian events is over shadowed by other activities taking precedence.
It is questionable to so many of our children and young adults as to whether they should practice a religion which so many adults claim to adhere to but don’t honestly practice. Whether you agree or not, you will find those practicing other religions adamantly faithful to the principles of their religions, especially their religion’s holy days.
We as Christians should take note and seriously practice the fundamental tenets of our religion and manifest deference and adherence to our holiest events. So if you are truly a practicing Christian, you should be more cognizant of respecting and honoring our religious holidays, especially Christmas and Easter.
During the Easter season, you should be familiar with the beginning of Easter known as the Lenten Season. Attributed to it are 40 preparation days before Easter commonly known as Lent. It begins with Ash Wednesday, announcing the arrival of Lent. It is during Lent you will find many Christian denominations adhering to different variations of fasting, self-denial, penance, and spiritual discipline to gain a closer relationship with God in preparation for Easter. The week before Easter is known as Holy Week, including: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. All are usually considered mandatory observances leading up to Easter.
Truly Easter should be a day of reflection, praise, and thanks for Christians acknowledging God for his gift of salvation to those who seek it. Masquerading the significance of religious and sacred events for capitalistic and mundane purposes should be seriously discouraged. Easter may bring about the largest attendance of Christians to churches. However, often participants appear there as zombies in a perfunctory capacity, simply filling seats. But we should be cognizant and appreciative of the significant of the occasion. It should be a humbling, spiritual, and redeeming experience—acknowledging and celebrating God’s love for us.
Seriously, those professing to be practicing Christians must do a better job in manifesting the teachings and moral values they are taught to adhere to as followers of Jesus Christ. It seems that Christian values have been compromised with the pursuit of worldly and materialistic influences. Man is finding ways to manipulate and dilute the word and teaching of Christianity to accommodate selfish wishes for money, power (control) and fame.
Christians expressing even a subtle gravitation away from the foundation of their beliefs exhibit a sure sign of our impending downward spiral towards doom. For true practicing Christians, alienation from God is the definition of death. Let’s stop wavering from what we know is important to our faith.
