As many mark the most significant events on the Christian calendar – while others simply enjoy sweet treats and a long weekend – Carolyn Millet asks church leaders to share their reflections on the reason for the season; whether simply enjoying the time off with family and friends has value, too; and the heavy commercialisation of the occasion.
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St Nicholas Catholic Church parish priest Joe Adriano
“To us Catholics, resurrection is the gift of life from the giver of life.
“The reason why Christ was resurrected is to prove to us all that resurrection is possible and I’m saying this in the context of our own death, our own struggles in life, all the crosses we carry – that beyond all the suffering that we endure, there is that beautiful hope of resurrection.
“Our suffering in this life is not the end. There is always hope that we overcome our own crosses and sufferings.
“The dying that we speak of in Easter is not only the end of our life on this earth; when we die and are cremated or buried in the earth and we don’t see that person again.
“Dying can also mean dying in this life because of our sinfulness, because of our frailties, because of our shortcomings, because of the crosses we bear.
“That’s not the end. Christianity is hope, because Christ resurrected from his death. That’s the beautiful thing about our religion.
“I love that through the very example of Christ, he showed that the love of God will give us life, even when we think, ‘I’m done, I cannot rise above this any more, I’m down in the gutter and I cannot rise above this’.
“A Christian always says, ‘No, I can rise above this’, because that’s exactly what Jesus has done.
“That’s why I love being a Christian: even when people hate me, I know somebody loves me; even when someone might think I’m hopeless, I still have hope.
“I’ve always believed that ... whether we are branded Christian, Muslim, Buddhist – that’s just a brand – the truth of the matter is when God created us, he made his presence part of our being. And because of that, that hope is not necessarily branded as Easter. It can be something else; it could be simply a life of hope.”
Northwest Church Tamworth senior pastor Bronwyn Bonnell
“For me personally, as a 14-year-old kid I remember asking my dad: ‘If Jesus came and died on the cross and not a single person decided to follow him, would that mean he died for nothing?’ and Dad said, ‘Yes, but if just one person decided to follow him, he would still do the same’.
“That made the whole picture of the sacrifice of Jesus intensely personal, because I interpreted it as he came just for me.
“For us as a church, it’s the most significant event of the Christian calendar, that and the resurrection … where a price was paid by the deity for the people, rather than them having to work their way to please the deity.
“The result being that it wasn’t just the death of a good person, it was actually God as man.
“For us, the cross is the most inclusive event in history.
“Humanity, we try and make it a point of difference that shuts some people out, but we believe that he loved the world so much that he gave his only son – that’s the most inclusive invitation you can muster up.
“We want to be inclusive in our invitation as well, so that’s why we do [our Good Friday service] at the Tamworth lookout: it’s not about us and our church, it’s about the whole city and the region ...
“Easter Sunday is a joyous celebration. We go, ‘Wow, the tomb is empty – the tomb is still empty’. We remember we serve a living God, one who is still very interested in humanity and observing everything about humanity; not one who is far off.
“I’m Aussie through and through, so public holidays are my thing [and] I think that’s a great opportunity to spend time with friends and family.
“I would say that I think with the way our Western world has gone with different celebrations, Christmas and Easter Sunday in particular, we’ve commercialised them and made them very materialistic.
“I actually don’t have a problem with this: it’s great to even celebrate our prosperity in our country, by giving gifts and eating chocolate.
“I am glad that Good Friday remains wholly unspoilt; marketing companies haven't found a way to leverage that yet!
“I certainly think spending time with friends and family is incredibly valid, and taking that time of rest.
“That speaks to Christian principles as well.
“I would encourage people that even if they’ve never given thought to Jesus, just to at least take a moment this weekend to think about who he claims to be and what that might mean to your life.”
Tamworth Community Presybterian Church minister David Hassan
“Easter is about mercy, hope and forgiveness, and I think that steps into the broader range of life, who we are as people.
“God made us to have relationship; how do we find relationship and satisfaction in relationship? The Christian view is that we find that in Jesus.
“At Easter we celebrate death, the death of Jesus – that might seem strange to some, but the Christian message is that Jesus rose again and that we can also find hope, forgiveness and a new life.
“When we think about the world, we don’t have to think too hard to see how many dark things have happened in recent events, so why is it that Christians get together in church where they might be harassed, bombed or killed?
“It’s because of the hope Christians have over Easter. We're celebrating something that’s worth celebrating. It affirms life and relationship.
“Being part of the community of God’s people … we have that community spirit of helping one another, looking after one another’s needs.
“We help the vulnerable and the needy, and not only those who have real need but also in terms of our own physical and spiritual need.
“We all face darkness, doubt and fear, and the Christian message deals with answering those questions.
“I think there is that wider acknowledgement that in Australia we actually come from Judeo-Christian heritage, so if families get together and spend time I’m going to affirm that, because that’s a great thing. That’s something God gave to each family, to get together and spend time.
“I think everybody groans when they see the huge commercialisation of Easter [but] I think we can live in harmony with it. It is what it is.
“It’s not about feeding ourselves, it’s about giving, and that’s the message we as Christians try to remind people of: it’s better to give than to receive, Jesus says that.
“I think it’s really important to consider who we are and how our lives are shaped, even spiritually.
“I’d be putting a challenge in that about who you consider yourself to be before God as you look at your life.
“As a Christian, I do want to people to consider who Jesus is in that space and what he had to say as he went about living his life.”
Tamworth Baptist Church pastor Michael Hutton
“Good Friday is the most significant occasion over Easter. It celebrates the heart of Christianity, which is of course God’s love for us that he sent his son – John 3:16, the heart of what Christians believe.
“It’s kind of a yearly remembrance of what’s true all year ’round.
“For me personally and to our church as a whole, we believe that everyone is the same; all humans share a humanity, but we believe that humanity is flawed.
“We don’t think that Christians are better than other people or a religious person is better than another person, but the Bible teaches us that everyone has selfishness that derails us and destroys others.
“We see it every day on the world stage and every day in our personal lives.
“We believe that we need an outside intervention and that’s what God’s done.
“He’s come to our world – we remember that at Christmastime – for a purpose: to fix this problem of selfishness, to pay the price for it and give us a new start.
“Easter is not just the remembrance of a death, it has the meaning of promise of a new life, a second chance.
“It’s fundamental to my faith, and I wouldn’t be a pastor, in ministry, if I didn’t believe that God was giving me a new start, that God could use someone as weak and finite as myself.
“I think there’s more people who have less connection with the history of Christian faith, so they’re going to know less about Easter, that’s just a natural thing.
“It’s not something that troubles me. I don’t get in a rage about the Easter bunny coming, that doesn’t bother me.
“I think we still have a memory of Easter in our whole Australian culture; that’s why we have the holiday [but] some of us don’t remember what we’re celebrating anymore; that happens a bit at Christmas as well.
“That’s OK. There’s many folk who do stop and think. Particularly the more traditional churches get people who think, ‘I want to stop and remember that again’.
“If people get extra time with their family; if they stop and take time to be together, that’s a good thing.
“I’d love it if everybody remembered what it was really about, but that’s just the way it is, and that’s OK.
“A God that loves humanity enough to come into our world and to die for us is a God that’s a God for everybody.
“A lot of people make the mistake of thinking Christianity is for someone else; the hope, forgiveness, freedom, joy – ‘that’s not for me’.
“Some people are too down on themselves and think, ‘God wouldn't love me, I’ve done too many terrible things’, or they have baggage from their past that makes it hard for them to receive love and receive grace.
“Others are full of themselves and think they don’t need anybody, but Easter reminds us that God came into our world because we needed him.
“Everybody needed him – and everybody’s welcome.”
St John Anglican Church vicar Josh Bovis
“St John’s is unique in that we have four services – on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday – but really, for me, they all point to the same things and that is the death and resurrection of Jesus.
“That’s the most important aspect of Easter; if you take the cross and the empty tomb away from Easter, you don’t have Easter.
“Easter really is about God rescuing people; Easter is God’s rescue mission to save a drowning humanity through the person of Jesus.
“I would say [the long weekend and time with family and friends] are all good things in themselves; I’ve been married for 20 years and have four kids, so I always welcome the long weekend for sure, but ... for me personally, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then I think life is meaningless without that.
“One of the reasons that convinced me of the truth of the Christian faith is I can’t explain the empty tomb any other way except to say Jesus physically rose from the dead on the third day.
“For Christians, Easter is the high point even more than Christmas, because that’s why Jesus was born: so that he could die.
“If Jesus is dead, no one’s resurrected and if Jesus is dead then he lied – he said he would die for our sins so we could be right with God, he said, ‘If you put your faith and trust in me, you will be forgiven’.
“The whole credibility of the Christian faith hangs on the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus stayed dead, it means what he said wasn’t true and his death on the cross didn’t work.
“The apostle Paul actually says that, if Christ wasn’t raised, then ‘let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ – and that’s probably the motto of Australian culture at the moment.
“I would say [the long weekend and time with family and friends] are the blessings that flow on from Easter, but they’re not the substance of Easter.
“Not that we shouldn’t enjoy those things, but I think our section of the world wants to enjoy the blessings of Jesus but not Jesus. Australia still, by and large, still benefits greatly from the gospel and the blessings from the Lord Jesus Christ.
“I think Easter eggs are great for two reasons: one, who doesn’t like chocolate?; also, most of them are hollow – so was the tomb, so I see it as a teaching tool that reminds us the tomb was empty.
“I do think the Easter bunny is used to replace Jesus at Easter the way Santa replaces Jesus at Christmas, so we don’t do Easter bunny. All the commercialisation, even the average non-church person doesn’t like that as well.
“I think the average Aussie would still know Easter is about Jesus, though. There’s still that residual Christian framework in there.
“Everyone’s so busy, there are so many voices competing for our attention, and I think God’s voice just gets drowned out.
“I see my role, as a minister of the gospel, I want to be a signpost and say to people, ‘Look, check out Jesus for yourself, be reminded again of why he actually came, why he died: he died to rescue us from sin and from death and from hell, and that's great news’.
“Jesus is the one who brings meaning and hope and joy and assurance to a life that, without him, I think has none of those things.”