3 Reasons to Make Easter Meaningful

When our kids were young, Sailor-Man and I did our best to make Easter meaningful for them. Attending church on Sunday morning was non-negotiable. The day was most important to us as followers of Jesus, and we loved to celebrate with our extended spiritual family.

The sermon and Sunday school lessons focused on victory we can experience through Jesus’s resurrection from the grave. Year after year, we heard the same Bible story about the angel rolling the stone away from the cave-grave’s door, but it never grew old. Neither did the hymn “Christ Arose.” No Easter service was complete without the congregation singing it.   

We spent the rest of the day with friends or family, enjoying a feast that often included baked ham, scalloped potatoes, steamed veggies, green salad, pickles, and homemade rolls. After the meal, weather permitting, the kids enjoyed hunting in the backyard for colored plastic eggs filled with chocolates.

None of our traditions were unique or earth-shattering, but altogether they helped us focus for a day on truths foundational to our faith, and it did our hearts good. 

Hindrances to making Easter meaningful

Life’s busyness can make it easy for us to skim past Easter without giving it the pause it deserves. Perhaps our minds are preoccupied with current challenges or all the things we’ll face the following week, and we just don’t have capacity for anything else.

We might regard Easter as a holiday that heaps yet another list of to-do’s on us: Prepare the spare bedroom for overnight guests. Buy groceries. Clean house. Rise early for the church’s sunrise service, prepare a big dinner, clean up after that dinner, and so on. Long sigh.

Maybe you’ve experienced loss in the recent past: Loss of a loved one. Loss of home and material possessions to a natural disaster. Loss of a job. Loss of hope in the decency of mankind, and loss of hope for a hope-filled future. Despair has riddled you with pain and doubt about whether God knows or cares about what’s happened to you and those you love and to the world at large. If He’s absent or your life doesn’t matter to Him, then why even give Easter a nod?

Life throws distractions of every description at us, and they can absorb our time and attention. If we let them, they can cause us to lose sight of the things that matter most and ultimately to lose perspective. In light of current affairs, more than ever we need to truly pause to ponder the wonder and beauty that Easter represents, for therein lies hope.

3 reasons to make Easter meaningful

As Easter approaches, let’s shut out the noise and rhetoric to focus on its meaning and why it matters.

First, Easter reminds us of Jesus’s undeserved suffering and death for our sake.

Without His death, we would be slaves to sin with no hope of ever experiencing freedom from its tyranny.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5 NIV)

Jesus paid our debt in full. There’s nothing left owing. We needn’t strive to be good enough for God anymore. He fully accepts us because Jesus paid the price. Do I hear an amen?

Second, Easter gives reason to rejoice in Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. 

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. (Matthew 28:5-6 NIV)

If Jesus had not risen from the dead, His claim to be the Messiah would have fallen by the wayside. His identity as God’s Son would never have been proven. His ministry on earth would have meant nothing.

But Jesus’s resurrection validated His claim as the Son of God and as the One able to forgive sin. It conquered death and brought the promise of eternal life for all who place their faith in Him for salvation.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 NIV)

Third, Easter sets the Christian faith apart from all other world religions.

None claim a risen leader. None worship a God who reached out to man and made a way for us to enjoy relationship with Him. What a privilege to serve a risen Savior who promises to be with us now and to someday take us home to heaven to live with Him forever.

Celebrate the hope Easter brings  

Easter reminds us of God’s great love for us. “I love you t-h-i-s much,“ His actions said as He stretched out His arms on the cross and allowed the Roman soldiers to nail His hands to its wooden beams. 

The wooden cross proves God’s amazing love for His children. The empty tomb proves His power, the same power that is at work within all who place their faith in Jesus for salvation. 

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:11 NIV)

Easter celebrates life and gives every reason for hope. Whatever your circumstances are today, I pray you’ll find a way to make Easter meaningful. You don’t have to do something earth-shattering; simplicity is good. Whatever makes Easter meaningful for you is good, too.

Ideas to help make Easter meaningful for children