This article appears on the front of the Easter edition of the Herald, published March 27, 2024

Can you believe it’s Easter already? You’ve probably been spending your time changing the decorations, packing goodie bags for school parties, and making sure you don’t miss out on the multitude of community events which, although all very nice, just feel like ‘one more thing to do.’ When did life get so busy, so laden with distraction?

One of the great threats of our age is that we are so preoccupied with what is shallow that we no longer have bandwidth to consider the deeper things. Our busyness impedes us from contemplating our stark reality: we share a universal human experience of brokenness and an innate desire for redemption, but aren’t quite sure what to make of it. Yet, in Easter, buried beneath piles of commercialization, lies a story that is hope-filled, redemptive, and satisfying to the longings of your soul.

Are you too distracted to hear it?

Maybe you grew up in church and are so accustomed to the Easter story that it has become white noise. The idea that “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship (Galatians 4:4-5)” is so ‘old hat’ to you that it no longer stirs your soul. Your concern this season is getting the right dress for family pictures, ham for dinner, and hitting all five of the egg hunts on your list. Friend, you are distracted by lesser things.

Maybe you didn’t know that Easter is about Jesus. Maybe you thought it was about the advent of Spring and a giant bunny who hides eggs stuffed with jelly beans for children to find (Uh… stranger danger?). Maybe you are so trapped on the treadmill of life, that you’re not even available to scratch below the Hallmark surface. Friend, you are distracted by lesser things.

Holidays are meant to force reflection, and Easter is a time to consider the significance of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. The message of Easter is that Jesus Christ died so you can be forgiven, was raised from the dead so you can live forever, and sent his Holy Spirit so you can follow him as King. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and he did that by defeating sin (the cross) and death (the empty tomb). In a world cursed by suffering and despair, Easter is a sword in the chest of the dragon, a shattering of chains, and a proclamation that no amount of darkness can swallow the light.

Easter is Good News. I pray we’re not too distracted to hear it.

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Pastor Bill is the pastor of Revolve Church in North Cape May, NJ. You can find more information about Revolve, including service times and location, at www.revolvechurchnj.com