Easter hope

The other day a faithful member of the church had a question about Easter, “How did the Easter bunny become a part of the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, there does not seem to be any connection? This of course raised my curiosity about a question to which I had no idea how to answer.

My only thought was that it was somehow related to some pagan belief that morphed into a custom which no one knew how it started. Sure enough the origin comes from a pagan festival of Eostre, a goddess of fertility, who’s animal symbol was a bunny which is known for its ability to multiply.

The more interesting explanation; comes from German Lutherans the “Easter Hare” originally played the role of evaluating whether children were good or disobedient during the season of Eastertide. We can guess that if you were good, you got a reward from the rabbit’s basket.

Eastertide of course is real, it is the season of Easter the forty days from the resurrection to ascension. According to the first chapter of Acts the time Jesus presented himself alive after his passion, speaking about the kingdom of God.

Easter has nothing to do with symbols or rewards for being good. It is about God taking control of his creation and his work of restoring a badly broken world. Easter is about a risen savior declaring sins are forgiven and welcome into the kingdom of God that has no end.