A few years ago, as part of its advertising campaign, a major supermarket arranged a survey about people’s knowledge of Easter. According to the survey, one in six 16- to 24-year-olds knew nothing about Good Friday. That’s about 17%. Easter was better understood, but still 10% of respondents were clueless about it being a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Rather ironically, the author of the press release about the survey wrote that the tradition of giving Easter Eggs was to celebrate the “birth of Jesus.” Yes, you read that correctly – the birth. But that was not the end of the story. When the error was pointed out, she issued a hurried replacement, highlighting the change she had made – a change which suggested that Easter was about the “rebirth of Jesus.” Following a conversation with the Church of England’s press office, a third – correct – version of the press release was published, identifying Easter as celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.
But should we be surprised at people’s ignorance about the Christian faith? There are plenty of things about 21st century life that I don’t know. An expert on politics would soon find serious gaps in my knowledge of their field. Sports pundits would pull faces at my level of ignorance about the Premier League or the latest Ashes Test series. I know enough about Facebook to get by, but I’ve never really understood Instagram, and TikTok is a complete mystery to me. The kind of stuff I know about church, other people know about their hobbies. So what’s the big deal? Why should people know about Easter?
Well for a start, the Christian faith is not a hobby or pastime. To say it is is to make a category error. The Christian faith is what has given us most of the values that we treasure in our society today – values like freedom, equality and kindness. Let’s face it, we base our whole calendar around Jesus’ birth – 2026 years ago – and we do this because of what happened that first Easter day. If Jesus had not been raised, his disciples would have gone back to their fishing boats and the movement he had started would have folded in days. Indeed, the Gospels tell us honestly how close to collapse it was, with the disciples skulking behind locked doors for fear of being arrested. But he was raised, and this remarkable reality changed their world. And it changed ours.
So perhaps we should all take better note of the event that, more than anything else, has shaped the world we inhabit. Let’s remember (or learn) why the day Jesus was executed is called Good Friday, and amidst the chaos of the world we see on our news, consider afresh the Christian hope that Jesus has defeated death and offers eternal life to all.
I wish you all a very happy Easter.