The differences between Christmas and Easter could be told as The Tale of Two Fridays.
Black Friday
Every year, Christmas generates over $400 billion of economic activity, with a large percentage of that being spent the day after Thanksgiving, “Black Friday.” Then, for the next four weeks, the frenzied shopping continues, with the hustle and bustle of buying and baking and decorating and cooking, until by the time Christmas gets here, most of us have lost our sanity and our savings.
The Christmas season lasts about four weeks, is kicked off by “Black Friday,” and is characterized shopping, spending, and decorating.
Good Friday
And then there is Easter. Easter week often begins on Palm Sunday, and leads up to “Good Friday” which is the day most people believe Jesus was crucified (I believe it was Thursday, but that’s a different study). Then a few days later, we celebrate Easter, also called Resurrection Sunday, as the day that Jesus rose from the dead. Though Easter week is about the Resurrection of Jesus, the death of Jesus is what makes it all possible.
Generally, very little money is spent for Easter. Very little decorating is done. Maybe a few lilies are bought and eggs are decorated, but other than that, it shares none of the frantic activity that Christmas does.
Which is great. But also odd.
Birth of Jesus vs. Resurrection of Jesus
Did you ever realize that in Scripture, the birth of Jesus doesn’t really matter a whole lot? Oh sure, Matthew talks about it, and Luke gives it some room, but other than those two Gospels, it’s as if nobody cares about the birth of Jesus.
Other than Matthew and Luke, no other biblical author mentions the virgin birth. The star stops shining. The wise men disappear from the stage.
Sure, the details of the birth of Jesus are critical, crucial, important, and necessary, but it still only gets a few short paragraphs in all of the New Testament. (Somewhere, I read the number of verses that talk about the birth of Jesus compared to the number of verses that talk about His resurrection, but I cannot find it right now. Anybody ever run across this?)
The resurrection of Jesus, however, is mentioned in all four Gospels, appears in nearly every chapter of Acts, and finds its way into the center of Paul’s thinking, Peter’s sermons, and John’s writings. It is almost as if the New Testament writers were saying, “The birth of Jesus? Meh … But the resurrection of Jesus? Now that’s the good stuff!”
Re-do the Calendar: Focus on the Resurrection of Jesus
If I could change one thing about the church’s annual calendar, I would do away with the overemphasis on Christmas, and put Easter in it’s proper place of importance. When I was a pastor, I usually preached on Christmas themes during the entire month of December, but only preached about Easter on the one day of Easter.
If I could do it all over again, I might try to follow the emphasis given in Scripture. I would only preach about the birth of Jesus one time per year, or maybe every other year, but preach and teach about the resurrection of Jesus every chance I got, and especially leading up to Easter Sunday.
The problem, however, is that for some reason, most of us don’t get nearly as excited about the resurrection of Jesus as we do for the virgin birth of Jesus.
But I think that when the truth of the resurrection of Jesus gets a hold of our mind, it radically changes, challenges, and inspires us in the same way it did for the early believers.
So forget about Christmas! This week, this month, this year, let’s focus on the resurrection of Jesus!
The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!
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Full agreement here (even on the Thursday thing… everything just fits too perfectly for it not to be). The reason, I believe, that Resurrection Sunday does not get the prominence of Christmas comes down to the fact that the cross is offensive — in the physical act, in its significance to our faith, in its impact on our lives that we must also take up our cross if we are to follow Jesus. It is a difficult story to deal with because it forces us to confront our sin. Christmas is a story of hope with little pain (at least for us!) and no need for personal conviction.
Having presents and greed wrapped up in it doesn’t hurt either.
So true. Maybe if could ignore what the day is all about, and commercialize it, and make it about fun things like little bunnies and candy and chocolate. Oh…wait…
Kinda makes you wonder if most Christians prefer their Jesus in a manger inside of outside of an empty tomb.
-Alan
It does make you wonder.
Because we are a people who think with our emotions. There is so much more emotion attached to Christmas than is to Easter. I agree that this is kind of backwards.
Easter has always been my favorite holiday since I became a disciple of Jesus.
Christus Victor!
Neither Xmas or Easter is to be found in scripture….
And the Christmas story is related only in Matthew and Luke, mainly to confirm fulfillment of various prophecies that Jesus is the One (it was, and still is, the basis of the gospel message – that the scrolls spoke of Him).
I guess people naturally celebrate births and mourn deaths.
Forget both Christmas and Easter….instead it’s the Feast of Tabernacles and Passover and the Feast of Unleven Bread! Those are the biblical observances.
That’s because we don’t get as many presents on Easter!
Ha ha ha! I laughed so hard at this. So true.
I believe that both the birth of Jesus AND the resurrection of Jesus, in GODS eyes, are equally important. Without one or the other, we are lost. But from my own opinion, I believe that the birth of Jesus, is more important than the Resurrection. Notice, I said the BIRTH of Jesus, not Christmas day. Maybe I’m missing something here, but regardless of what day Jesus was born on….without the birth of Jesus, where would the resurrection be??? Or how COULD the resurrection be??? Then again, without the Resurrection, how could WE ever be raised up??Because HE lives, we will live also. Or are we just saying that Jesus was born, Was crucified, died, and was raised from the dead…now which….DAY…. is more important…Christmas or Easter, Day??? Hope I said that right.
Good points. They are both critical, and I love celebrating both.
Dean, but I’m not Jewish….
Well I guess I am learning that being Jewish really has little to do with it… it is the feasts that helps us put the Gospel in it’s proper context, they are the prophetic shadow picture that the Almighty has established. And if we have been grafted in are we not partakers of Israel?
Both pagan it their orientations, symbolisms, and practice…believers need to abandon the religion of Rome
No, not abandon. Redeem!
The focus on Easter makes a lot of sense, because Easter emphasises that in life there is death, but in death there is life. The death of Jesus marks the beginning of a new life.
I totally agree. Jesus was NOT born on 25th. of December as any investigation will reveal, but this date has been taken over by business and is the biggest sales day of the year, Christmas trees? Christmas presents? Christmas cards? Christmas holidays? for a date that wasn’t established until about four hundred years after Jesus lived? Surely the date on which God offered up His own Son to buy our salvation is a better time for celebration.