Does Easter mean chocolate?

With Rev Simon Wean of Holy Trinity Church

CHOCOLATE! That’s the answer I often get to the question “What are you looking forward to about Easter?” (Especially if the person has given it up for Lent.)

And if I were to ask “What links Christmas and Easter?” I might get a similar answer – only the chocolate comes in a different shape this time (though I did notice in Sainsbury’s that Chocolate Oranges have made an Easter appearance)!

But is Chocolate a satisfactory answer to either question? And when the chocolate is all eaten and we feel slightly sick – aren’t we left wanting something more?

So what is there to get excited about at Easter, and what really links them?

Jesus is the answer, but not just that he appears in both stories. He became one of us (at Christmas) in order to die for us (at Easter).

Think about a Lego figure – imagine becoming one. Cool for a few minutes, but then you realise the restrictions – you can only move your head side to side (not up and down) and your arms and legs are limited too! Now consider the God of the universe becoming a person – and how Jesus limited himself in doing so. So why would he do that?

Fast forward to the end of his life and his death on a cross. There, he was dying not for his own mistakes but for ours – to quote Jesus from Mark’s gospel, he was giving “his life as a ransom for many”. Jesus was taking the punishment for our mistakes – he was swapping places with us.

So why did he have to become a person? So that it was a fair swap. He was a substitute – a person for a person. In other words, he had to be one of us, to swap places with us. Some houses have naughty steps, where children sit if they’ve done something wrong – now you can’t get the cat to swap places with you! God had to become a human in order to be a fair substitute. Easter requires Christmas.

Where does that leave us? The offer of forgiveness through Jesus is open to everyone – but it’s not automatic. Like the Eggs you might get at Easter, you have to accept them, but unlike the eggs at Easter, you can’t buy them – forgiveness is offered for free.

If you’d like to find out more about Easter and explore further – do pop into one of the Hinckley churches this Easter. You may even get some chocolate too!