On a recent Easter Eve a Christian church in southwest Pennsylvania presented an Easter pageant. Reportedly many adults were upset, and many children horrified. The pageant featured the whipping of the Easter Bunny and the smashing of the chocolate eggs. It was argued by the Youth Minister of this church that this was a religious necessity to combat the pagan symbols of bunnies and eggs.
I would like to make four observations regarding this event.
First, “Easter” is a pagan name in origin. It is merely an updated spelling of Eostre, that frolickingly happy Brit goddess of spring. Had the minister had some wherewithal, she would have named it a Paschal pageant, Pasch being the Greek for Passover and the term used by Christians outside the English-speaking world. But Pasch and Passover are themselves about a lamb, communally slaughtered and eaten, about signing houses in blood, about escape from death, about inexplicable rescue. There is also no shortage of such themes in paganism as well, and scholars a few generations ago were tripping over themselves to comment on that.
Second, as a student of Biblical studies, allow me to make five non-textual speculations regarding the Bunny.
1. We all know that bunnies live in hollows and holes and sometimes–even caves. While the tomb into which Jesus was laid may well have been never used as a tomb, nowhere are we told it had no other use. I put to you it was in fact a home, the home of the bunny.
2. When on that fateful morn the bunny awoke, he was surely not amused to find that someone had rolled a great rock in front of his door, so he moved it.
3. To say the least, the bunny was surprised to find a body in his house. It was the bunny who helped him up and out. To those of gentler hearts who find this suggestion a sacrilege, keep in mind that Incarnation epitomizes the belief that God works in and through created things.
4. The bunny started to tidy up but did not, after moving both rock and Jesus (figuratively Earth and Heaven) have the energy to go on. Hence linens were left unfolded.
5. While sitting in the glow of the morning sun and trying to recover from such a hectic start of day, the bunny was startled by some women looking for Jesus. They, of course, already shaken by a removed stone, peeped in, and seeing the bunny with his long ears back and flowing confusedly thought him to be an angel and ran away.
They who find this all a little too fanciful are directed to get themselves to a library and seriously read some very serious commentaries on scripture. Some scholars’ musings make the above look patently tame. They who find this heretical are directed to read the Gospel according to Peter and further consider how a culture that employs the idiom of animal helpers as opposed to celestial helpers might relate the event.
Third, I do not know where chocolate eggs come from. I do not care. I grew up in a household where the meaningfulness of confections was understood to subsist in their enjoyment and not in the analysis of their origins. Yes, some mysteries ought not to be questioned, just celebrated. Nevertheless, the symbolism of egg for resurrection has Christian roots, it having been among the many pagan symbols co-opted, baptized, and given a new dimension of meaning. The shell is the tomb enclosing a life summoned forth to a newness of life. They that find eggs and chicks unacceptable symbols ought recall the psalmist tells us God wishes to cover us with his wings (Ps 91), and that Jesus echoes that passage when he desiderates that he would gather and protect us under his wings as does a hen her chicks (Mt 23, Lk 13). Chocolate has had, in some times and some places, a connection with the divine, but far be it from me to toss another bit of paganism at them that believe knowing a word means comprehending its meaning and so go about misunderstanding their own sacred writings, those of all others, and the nature and function of religion in general.
Fourth, I would like to consider the conservative side of the American Protestant heritage. Do you recall the childhood quiz: if April showers bring May flowers, what do Mayflowers bring? Answer: Pilgrims. Remember them? They outlawed Christmas and popularized basic black. So, what did the Pilgrims bring? Calvinistic capitalism, Biblical fundamentalism, and a strong inclination to Theocracy. Their excessive effort to out-weigh the burden of a belief in predestination garnished an orientation to external busy-ness, scriptural literalism and the need to have an answer from On High for every situation. If you were numbered among the saved, your industrious, profitable, and obedient life was the proof of it, until, of course, you arrived in heaven. God had spoken and the Bible was his singular and only word. The world represented what was not of God.
It is a sorry thing that the symbols of an empty cross and empty tomb are lost on those who would minister them. It is a sad thing that those powers that sustain and transport us from season to season are not grasped with joy. It is a sad thing that symbols that have held the attention of Western civilization for hundreds of years are losing their force. But life goes on, and it finds its way. So, if the brightness of spring, the innocence of bunnies and chicks, the fragrance of lilies, the delights of confections and the “hunt” for them as they lay hidden about on an awakening Earth speak to the world of the good news of life and living, then, let it be. Let the church consecrate them to God’s use.
Blessed is the Creator of all things. May we all delight in his works, and may all our crosses and all our tombs be empty this day and evermore.