Christmas was still in full swing when the first Easter Eggs appeared in the shops.
Once this would have led to disapproval, but we have now become so accustomed to their early appearance, that it’s greeted with either a shrug of acceptance or delight in a change from the Christmas offering of Quality Street (other festive sweets are available).
As with Christmas decorations appearing in September and Hot Cross Buns now a permanent bakery offering, the way that the seasons expand is a fact of life today.
This year Good Friday, when Jesus died on the cross, falls on April 7, and the date can range anywhere between March 20 and April 23.
Events when we mark the beginning and the end of Jesus’ earthly life; Christmas and Good Friday, which were some 32 years apart, are in our calendar within a few months of each other.
Christmas and Easter are, however, inexorably linked whatever the date. This is because Christmas points to Easter, Jesus’ birth and death had both been foretold.
When the wise men came to visit the child, they brought three very significant gifts; Gold for a king, Incense, used in worship denoting Jesus’ priesthood and Myrrh used to anoint the dead pointing to his death.
When Mary and Joseph took the baby to the temple, Simeon recognised that God’s promise had been fulfilled, but to Mary he said ‘a sword will pierce your heart’; Jesus’ death again foretold.
God sent his son to live among us and in some way that we may not fully comprehend, through his birth, life, death and resurrection, made it possible for all who believe and trust in him to have new life beyond the grave, that is something to celebrate.
Tony Bartlett of St Catherine’s Tilehurst, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Reading
