Please share your thoughts on this week’s essay: A Goldilocks Easter
Discussion Questions:
How have you experienced Easter being hyped?
How would we handle suffering if there was no Easter?
What does it look like - from your perspective - to celebrate Easter “just right”?
Two days ago, my great-grandpa died. My parent told us Easter Morning.
It definitely hit my mom the hardest, but there was a somber mood stretched over all of Easter.
However, it really gave us the chance to stay at home as a family. We didn’t go to church-I don’t think any of us thought we could get through without crying, but we watched it as a family. That was sort of the theme of the day. We cooked together, played board games together, and had a Thanksgiving meal together.
We celebrated Easter as a family, not with the Easter Bunny or an organized egg hunt. We just sat together and celebrated Easter. Though the situation wasn’t good, that’s what I think it is to celebrate Easter “Just Right”
How would we handle suffering if there was no Easter? Yesterday would have been pretty much only crying as we wouldn’t have had the knowledge my great-grandpa is in Heaven.
Hey @maylana, that’s a very tough loss. 
Thank you for sharing, will be praying for y’all as you grieve. I’m so grateful you had the comfort of the resurrection amidst the sadness.
Thank you @maylana for sharing how the message of Easter has carried your family these past days. Praying for continued comfort and strength for your family. 🩵
I’m not sure if I’ve experienced Easter being hyped except in so much as Christian culture in the US as I’ve experienced it (through radio, movies, songs, and liturgical selection) tends to downplay suffering and lament.
Without the resurrection, we wouldn’t have the hope of our future to come which will surpass by far all our affliction. As a result, I think suffering would lead to despair and escapism without Easter.
As I’ve been studying Hebrews, the importance of Jesus’ humanity and his suffering has stuck out to me a lot, especially in Hebrews 2:14-18:
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
It is his suffering and death that made it possible for him to become our merciful and faithful high priest. Yes, his resurrection broke the power of death and in his ascension he goes before us into the holy place, but it is through his suffering that he becomes our high priest and intercessor, crying out on our behalf.
As both @Carson and @maylana shared, I think celebrating Easter just right, means recognizing and confronting evil and suffering while holding onto the joy and hope of the glory that Jesus has won for us through his death, resurrection, and ascension.
@maylana thank you for sharing your experience last Easter and how you were able to celebrate together in the midst of the pain and suffering of your loss. I’m so sorry for his passing and have been praying for you and your family throughout this past week. I’m praying for comfort and strength for you all during this season of the anniversary and that you will be able to celebrate Easter just right again this year holding to the hope and joy of Christ while making space to grieve together.