By Pastor Leah Fintel Krotz, Trinity Lutheran Church, Bruning
I’m writing this column a few days after Easter, my favorite holiday. I am always deeply moved by the solemn observances of Holy Week, followed by the bright and joyous celebration of the Resurrection. Easter is the festival of new life, rebirth, and hope, and fittingly, it comes in spring, as we daily see signs of new life and new birth all around us.
There are many symbols of the resurrection, including butterflies, Easter lilies, and songbirds. Eggs are probably the most common symbol, although some may not realize why they are associated with Easter. It is because early Christians used them to represent Jesus’ emergence from the tomb, with the hard shell as the sealed grave and the cracking open as his resurrection.
Rick and I have continued the family tradition we remember from our childhoods with our own children and now grandchildren: coloring hard-boiled eggs on the day before Easter and then leaving them for the Easter bunny to find and hide during the night. Then, before or after church on Easter Sunday, an outdoor egg hunt occurs. After all the eggs have been located, I follow my mom’s practice of making them into deviled eggs!
I have so much fun helping to creatively hide the eggs. And children love the search—our eleven-year-old nephew just as much as the two and four-year-olds. Hunting for treasure seems to be something we never really outgrow.
As the kids hunted, I was reminded of the parable Jesus told about a man who located a pearl of great value hidden in a field, and then sold all that had owned in order to purchase that field and secure the prize. Many people interpret the parable to mean that we should give up everything for the sake of Jesus, but I think it's better to look at parables as being about God, not us, as the main character.
Just like the man in the parable, Jesus gave up everything in order to redeem us. In spite of our unworthiness, we are so infinitely precious to him that he was even willing to die in order to rescue us from eternal death. The best part is that he didn’t just die, he defeated the power of death forever when he rose from the grave.
“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” -1 Peter 1:18-19
