There are a few things that really get my knickers in a knot.  And the easter bunny is in the top three.  When it comes to honoring, loving, enjoying, and celebrating the Holy Days, I get pretty steamed by cheap counterfeits. Now with Christmas, I can hold my head just right and see some value in the story of St. Nick, aka Santa. He was a man who loved Jesus and loved others in His name.  Sure “Santa” has been sanitized of any God truth, but the origins are noble. Don’t misunderstand, I don’t like Santa either. He is a pointless distraction from the Birth of God.  But the easter bunny is not only ridiculous, it is blasphemous.

Let me explain.  The bunny is a symbol of fertility, as in to mate in the same way rabbits do.  With speed and frequency, resulting in many offspring. Doesn’t this sound, I don’t know, holy? The egg is a symbol of new life. You take a sperm and an egg, and voila’ you have new life.

However, this is not the story of Jesus, the the Slain and Risen Lamb of God.  In His life, from virgin birth to brutal death and miraculous resurrection, sex is not the issue. Creating life is not the issue. Procreation has been giving to humankind and the animal kingdom. 

More than new life, Jesus was the Lamb chosen for slaughter for the Passover meal. It was His blood that was posted on our door frames so that the angel of death might pass over us.  And when He was killed, it was not candy and colored eggs we received, but the access into the Holy of Holies. Communion with God because the veil was torn.

In the empty tomb, we don’t see “new life.” This is not merely life created by human effort, or animal instinct. This isn’t a maternity ward.  This is a Miracle.  The Holy Dead was resurrected. Jesus was brought from death to life.   And with His resurrection comes all our hope and joy of life from now through all eternity.

What has the easter bunny ever done for us, or our children, but make us fat and satisfied with a sugary delusion?  It is not fun, not harmless. It is a false idol. No more, no less.