Easter
Seasons Materials
"There would be no Christmas if there had
not been Easter. The babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but
another baby without the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and
Calvary, and the triumphant fact of the Resurrection." (Gordon
B. Hinckley, Ensign, Dec. 2000, 2)
I am convinced that if it were not for commercial and
cultural factors, Easter would be more important to us than
Christmas. As President Hinckley has noted in the quote
above, Christmas is only significant because of the miracle of
Jesus' atoning sacrifice and his glorious resurrection.
The term "Easter" only appears once in the King James Bible, at
Acts 12:4, where is is better translated as "Passover." In
fact, the scriptures nowhere enjoin us to celebrate the birth,
death, or resurrection of Jesus as holidays per se, although we
are commanded to remember him through ordinances and in our own
testimonies. In that sense the day on which we remember and
celebrate Christmas and Easter are not as important as the events
themselves. Indeed, for Christians every day should be
Christmas. Likewise, we remember and honor the suffering and
death of Jesus every week with the sacrament, and the fact that we
celebrate the sabbath on the first day of the week, the Lord's
Day, means that for us every Sunday is Easter!
With Palm Sunday, the week before Easter, much of
the Christian world enters into a period of reflection and,
ultimately, celebration known as "Holy Week." Each of the
events chronicled in this last week cast light on his true
nature as the Son of God, and reviewing them deepens the faith
of believers in his matchless love. While the LDS
community does not formally observe Holy Week, the period from
Palm Sunday to Easter morning present a wonderful opportunity
for believers to use the scriptures to reflect upon the last
days of our Lord's earthly ministry.
In the bustle of day-to-day life, it is
useful to employ holidays to refocus our attention and our
thoughts and, most of all, celebrate together and with friends of
other faiths the events we all value. For some years now, my
family and I have benefited spiritually by using the gospel
accounts of the Savior's last week as the focus of our family and
personal scripture study. It is a great way to truly
celebrate Easter!
Accordingly, I am making these materials available to
my students and other interested parties, revised and expanded
from previous years. Particularly useful, I hope, is the
"Chronology of Events" link below, which summarizes each day's
events and is accompanied with reflections on their significance
and symbolism, together with a few images. May we all greet
this Easter with the joyous refrain, "Christ is risen!"
Challenge: How can my family make Easter as
important as Christmas this year? Other
Easter links
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