Easter - what's it all about?

I don't know about you, but if I'm walking down a street and I see someone handing out leaflets I usually do my very best to avoid them, even if it means crossing to the other side of the road! It was with some trepidation, therefore, that I joined a team of folk from church to hand out leaflets one day earlier this week. Since December last year we have set up a gazebo outside church and used it as a base to hand out leaflets. The leaflets usually give a short message about some aspect of Christian faith and also highlight forthcoming events in church. Naturally, this month's leaflet had an Easter theme.

The sad truth is that so many people in our society today have little or no understanding of what Easter is all about. For many, it's about chocolate and eggs, and perhaps the chance to have a few days off work. We Brits seem to be into chocolate in a big way: around £280million was spent on Easter eggs in the 4 days leading up to Easter last year! In fact, Easter chocolate sale make up about 10% of Britain's annual spending on chocolate.

So how do we help people discover the true meaning of Easter? This is what we put into the leaflets which we distributed this week:

Do you sometimes wonder why we celebrate Easter? Is there more to Easter than Easter eggs and fluffy bunnies? It may seem strange, but Easter is focused on someone who died. On the day called Good Friday we remember that Jesus Christ, God's Son, died an agonising death at the hands of the authorities. The good news? That wasn't the end of the story! Three days later, Jesus was alive again. What's more, he is alive today! Want to discover what this means for you? You will be welcome at Priory - we'd love to tell you more.

(Priory is the name of our church). Last Tuesday we distributed around 2,500 leaflets. Our hope and prayer is that they will encourage people to want to discover more about Jesus.

I have been privileged to visit the Holy Land on several occasions. One of my favourite places is the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. Though it may not be the actual site of the tomb in which Jesus' body was placed, it has a very special atmosphere. One can visit a tomb which is probably not unlike the actual tomb of Jesus. But the tomb is empty! As the angels said to the disciples who visited Jesus' tomb, 'He is not here, he is risen!'

Jesus is alive today! Billions of people around the world know it to be true. This is good news for every person, for through him we are invited into a relationship with God our heavenly Father. If you don't know Jesus personally, if you haven't yet experienced his living presence in your life, then know that he loves you and longs for you to come to him. Visit your local church this Easter to find out more.

To visit the eauk slipstream website where you will find podcasts with Gary Habermas, an expert on the resurrection, click here