Easter weekend and the days leading up to it used to exhaust me. There were choir rehearsals for Good Friday and Sunday services. There were two Good Friday services, one on Thursday evening and one at noon on Friday. There were four Sunday morning services. In addition to all the rehearsals and services, there were dresses to buy, food to prepare, baskets to fill, and eggs to hunt. Easter was always a hyped-up blur to me.
This week on Facebook I’ve scrolled past countless invitations to different churches’ Easter Events.
Easter Event.
And I wonder if Jesus ever expected his death and resurrection would be turned into an annual, weekend-long hoopla of new clothes, multiple church services, candy-filled baskets, a feast of rich foods, and an egg hunt for the masses.
The build-up is massive. As one friend recently put it, You expect fireworks to go off during the Sunday morning service.
I suppose Easter is no different than Christmas. They’re both holidays that seem to increase in dramatic expectation each year, leaving the participants weary and wondering what even transpired.
When asked if she’d attend church this Easter, a friend lamented, I don’t know. Why can’t Easter Sunday service be like every other Sunday?
I get why churches do it. Easter Sunday is the remembrance of the single most important event in Christian tradition. And to celebrate, they throw a party of sorts, though they’d never call it that. Easter Event is more reserved, I suppose. In any case, they’re attempting to draw in the masses, the unchurched who only attend twice a year. The lost.
I haven’t been to church since before Christmas. I guess you could call me “unchurched.” Some of you will probably call me “lost.” It doesn’t matter what label gets stuck on me. I now know both sides of the coin. As one who used to get high on Easter services and all the drama, I understand the churches’ need to make it bigger and better every year. But as one who now rarely attends church, I can tell you that the unchurched don’t particularly care for all the lights and production and drama.
To those of us on the outside, the Easter Events appear to be a spectacle rather than a time of worship. Then again, maybe that’s appropriate. Wasn’t that why the crowds were gathered at the cross? They wanted to see a spectacle.
I’ll attend church on Easter Sunday simply because it’s expected in my culture. This year will be even more low-key for me than last year. I have no expectations. I’ve seen no Easter Event advertisements for the church we’ll be attending. In all honesty, I sincerely hope Jesus meets me there. Not in a dramatic, fantastic way. Not in a production. Rather, I hope to find him in the quiet and simple and ordinary.
