What is Easter about?

When lots of people are facing bills they cannot pay, Ukraine continues as a bloodbath, and the environment is still overheated, talk of an Easter bunny and over-priced chocolate in weird shapes seems a bit of a pathetic explanation.

So if Easter is only a marketing opportunity for confectionary, it’s time to bring it to an end as a public holiday.

But if we have the courage to ask how Easter came about, we might want to keep it and do something better with it.

The Christian celebration of Easter has its roots in the story about the ancient Hebrews that is now better known through the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. But the Christian episode in that saga comes much later, in the Roman Empire with its control of the Mediterranean countries and beyond.

The Roman regime survived because it understood brutality and the fear it caused. Women, children, and old people would be decimated if necessary. The worst of all threats was crucifixion. It was an ingenious technique of imposing a relatively cheap, slow, lingering death, with the benefit of public humiliation that would serve as a deterrent. Christians observe the execution of Jesus Christ by Roman authorities on what we ironically call Good Friday.

As a result, we maintain that Easter has always been very disturbing for serious perpetrators of international war crimes.

Christians believe that you cannot kill truth, love and beauty by brute force. In fact, brute force will only deepen resistance to the evil and unjust misuse of power. Jesus Christ was the embodiment of God’s radical love, in its acceptance of all people – an inclusion that today we admire.

This Easter, much of the inhumanity of the Roman Empire is evident in Ukraine. But I find it profoundly moving to see young people there carrying the traditional cross and its depiction of the death of Jesus Christ at the funerals of young and old alike.

This is a silent and ancient resistance that calls time on the power of evil by declaring that you cannot kill love, truth and justice. It is the meaning of Easter. It also calls time on the trivial Easter bunny.