The Easter Egg and why we have the Big Hunt

Easter is rapidly approaching. I know this because the decorations have been up in retail stores for over a month now, so that means that it HAS to be close. I lost an hour of sleep yesterday due to the clocks rolling forward--another sure indicator that Easter is close at hand.

I had an 'anonymous' note given to me yesterday (I love those people who care enough to jot comments or questions down but don't want to be identified for one reason or another). It said:

"Pastor--what does Christ's resurrection have to do with Easter eggs?"

I have to admit, this is the first anonymous note that I've received since starting FVC, so I was kinda shocked to get it at first (not shocked to get a note, but to receive one like this, for sure). (Now, admittedly, I"m assuming that this comment comes in light of thet fact that we, as a church, have decided to have an Easter egg hunt for kids between our two worship services)

After thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that Easter eggs, and the resurrection of Christ have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Now I know that there is a company somewhere who has created a cute little container with plastic eggs in it, and each plastic egg contains a little symbol of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus in it--I'm not taking anything away from that company, or that product. But the truth is that the Easter egg as we know it, and subsequently the Easter egg hunt has nothing to do with Christ's resurrection.

I guess that the impending question in the mind of the anonymous note writer would then be, "Why is the church having an Easter egg hunt if it has nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ?" And that one is easy.

Churches have an Easter egg hunts for the same reason that they have Christmas musicals, or bingo nights, or concerts, or Christian comedians, or anything else that would 'widen the door' of the church, so that people who normally wouldn't be interested in attending a worship service, might come BECAUSE of that particular event.

It was Jesus himself who came up with this idea...the one that we still use today. The idea that if you want to draw people to Christ, you have to use some sort of bait. It's not a sneaky, behind the back, sort of thing--remember, this was Jesus' idea in the first place:

Jesus called out to them, "Come, be my disciples, and I will show you how to fish for people!" Matt 4:19 (NLT)

How does one catch fish? With the proper 'bait'. How does one catch people? The same way.

We have to reach into THEIR world...not squeeze them into ours.