The Sacred Made Secular

As Easter sneaks up on us (a week this Sunday), I've been thinking about how our society has secularized this sacred holiday. It is a sacred holiday because we celebrate with joy the death and resurrection of our holy Saviour, Jesus Christ, God in flesh. But with chocolate bunnies, gauzy eggs, sugar-coated chicks and the constant talk of "spring," the world has tried to expel Christ from Easter. And it's not only Easter. It's the same at Christmas (though that's another story for another post). The problem is that society in general wants to participate in this religious holiday minus the religion. Is it just me or is there something wrong with that?

But we shouldn't be surprised. The devil has long been trying to make the sacred secular, counterfeiting the gospel and making cheap imitations of the holy. Just look at Easter and its traditions. It was once known as a deeply-rooted religious holiday, born out of a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Now it's nothing more than a civic business holiday. Or look at the practice of dyeing eggs, originally started by Christians as symbols of Christ's empty tomb and dyed red to indicate His shed blood. Now they're just symbols of bunnies and candy and big family dinners. Take the Easter Bunny, as another example. Long ago he had Christian roots, since rabbits were well-known throughout medieval churches as symbols of fertility and new birth in the spring. But with George Franck von Frankenau's seventeenth century legend of this gift-giving hare and years of German tradition, the Easter Bunny was secularized and now simply represents a Santa Claus copycat.

Now I'm not saying you shouldn't eat candy on Easter or dye eggs. What I am saying, though, is that I hope you're aware of our society's secularization of the sacred and you will stand stand for the truth and celebrate and exalt Christ this Easter (and every day!) And lest you get too discouraged, remember this: God is in control. He's not nervous or afraid of the devil's secular influence upon the world's view of the sacred. He is sovereign and all-powerful and knows exactly what He's doing.

So this Easter let's not exalt the secular but our sacred and resurrected Saviour, Jesus Christ!