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A Family Circus comic strip shows the children of the family on Easter morning. One asks, "Who laid all these eggs?" The reply of another child is, "The Easter Bunny." "Who colored them?" Again the reply, "The Easter Bunny." The first child asks again, "Who gave us the jelly beans?" The reply, "The Easter Bunny." The family is then shown going to church. In church, the minister is preaching, and asks, "They came to the tomb and saw the stone rolled back, 'Who could have done this?' " And the child in the congregation yells out, "The Easter Bunny!"

But that is fiction. History was not split in half by a rabbit! I remember, as many of you do, as a small child, running around the house on Easter morning, searching for the eggs my parents had hidden. I had been told that the Easter Bunny had brought them. There was a basket to put them in; and on a good day I'd find a chocolate rabbit, hard-boiled, colored eggs, multi-colored jelly beans, and larger candy eggs; orange, yellow, green and lavender. Do you remember the lavender eggs always lasted the longest because they tasted so terrible?

Of course, all of this sort of fits in with Easter's origin which can be traced back to pre-Christian cultures. It was associated with the day of the spring equinox, with the goddess of spring and fertility. The rabbits stood for fertility and the eggs symbolized new life. So, as the pagans became Christianized they sort of cross-fertilized with the Christian celebration of the resurrection and gave it the pagan name of Easter. And, oh, how our commercial world profits from that long-ago merger! They make big profits from our holy resurrection day. It is prime-time for the marketing of new clothes, chocolates, candies, eggs, greeting cards, and Easter lilies. And they milk the money to the last drop with sales: pre-Easter sales, Easter sales, post-Easter sales, even final discount, 80% off, Easter sales.

All of this Easter bunny, Easter eggs, Easter clothes, Easter sales may seem like harmless fun, but if it diverts our attention from the central truth of what the resurrection of our Lord is all about, then it is no longer harmless. I have no personal antagonism against a cute, little bunny who lays eggs for children - (Do you suppose they really believe that stuff we tell them?) - but it is life and death business (no pun intended) if we allow the rabbit to eclipse the fact of the resurrection!

Jesus did not die on a cross and rise again so that we could hunt Easter eggs, but rather that we might have eternal life. So let us be clear: The Easter bunny is really a nice, little critter when relegated to his proper place, but don't forget that it is only an illusion. The rabbit is fiction!

The Fact

And then there is the fact: "God raised his Son from the dead!" God's ultimate victory took place on that Sunday morning which followed the terrible, black, Good Friday of three days ago. Listen to the text; "They killed him, but God raised him from the dead."

Five times in this book of Acts Peter said, "You (or they) killed him, but God raised him from the dead!" Paul said it at Antioch, "You killed him, but God raised him from the dead." The resurrection of Jesus is presented as the cornerstone of truth in the early Christian church. The statement that God raised Jesus from the dead appears twelve times in Acts. Paul begins the epistle to the Romans with the fact of Christ's resurrection from the dead, and bases the Christian's new life on the resurrection of Jesus. And Paul declares decisively and in detail that "if Jesus did not rise from the dead, the entire Christian faith is false and we are left without hope."

Only the resurrection can account for the radical change which took place in Christ's disciples; men who had previously been cowards and losers, but now speak with boldness and authority. If we accept the authenticity of the gospel records, then we cannot deny the historical fact of Christ's bodily resurrection. The physical resurrection of Christ is as inseparable from the Christian message as a chicken from chicken soup.

The non-believers have propounded multitudes of ridiculous theories to circumvent this biblical truth, saying: it was not a physical resurrection, but just a spiritual resurrection, Christ did not really die on the cross, he just fainted and was resuscitated in the coolness of the tomb, that the witnesses were psychologically influenced by their fervor.

But it has ever been true that you can't explain miracles, you accept them. Without a doubt the resurrection is a supernatural event, but without apology we proclaim that Christianity is a supernatural religion. God can, and did, and does intervene in human history - not in violation of natural law which he, by the way, created, but by interposing his higher level of supernatural law when he so chooses. A liberal German, Rabbi Peter Levinson, said as he twitted liberal Christians for their lack of faith, "The demythologizers of Easter are sawing off the branch of faith upon which they were sitting. If I believed in Jesus' resurrection, I would be baptized tomorrow!"

Oh, yes, Easter's fact is the glorious resurrection of our Lord! Martin Luther said there was nothing better than this truth. He stated, "The words, 'Christ is risen from the dead' should be well-marked and written in great letters. Each letter should be as large as a town, yea, even as high as heaven and broad as the earth, so that we see nothing, hear nothing, think nothing, know nothing beyond it."

The Fact Feeds Our Faith

So, the rabbit is only an illusion, but the resurrection is our proof of eternal life. And the text continues with the glorious promise that because Christ died and rose again, that "everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." What a blessed relief! Christ died, Christ rose again, and now redemption's work is done, Christ is vindicated as Conqueror over death, hell, and the grave, and the way for sinners like ourselves is now wide open to God. Is it any wonder that Easter hymnody is sung in a major key; full of life, triumph, victory, joy, celebration, and hope? The battle is over, the night is past, the victory is won, and the songs of triumph resound across the land.

But this glorious fact also feeds our faith when the path we walk is not bright with light. When we feel despair, hopelessness, and can't see our way we can believe that God will take our impossible situations and help us turn them into triumphs. If he could handle death, can he not take care of whatever problem that confronts you today? You see, we know that when you're dead, you're dead! Right? - Right! Unless God comes on the scene. And that's exactly what Peter keeps saying in Acts; "You killed him, but God ..." "You killed the Lord of Life, but God ..." "You crucified him, but God ..." "You executed him, but God ..." "You hanged him on a tree, but God ..." "God" did this impossible thing for his Son, don't you see, then, that he longs to do the same for you? After humanity has done his worst, God does his best.

Perhaps you once sang a little chorus that I sang when I was a child. Its words were something like this:

Got any rivers you think are uncrossable;
Got any mountains you can't tunnel through?
God specializes in things thought impossible;
He does the things others cannot do.

Your problem is not bigger than God. God said through the prophet Jeremiah (32:27), "Nothing is too difficult for me." Jesus said, "All things are possible to him who believes (Mark
9:23)."

So, are there some impossibilities you face in your life today? Maybe it is the impossible situation of a marriage that is almost or altogether on the rocks. Maybe a friend has left you disillusioned, or maybe you've hit the bottom financially, or perhaps you're in trouble at school, maybe you need to sell yur house and can't find a buyer, maybe you're caught up in a sin that has you bound in its clutches, maybe ... impossibilities ... we face them all the time. What a relief to know that God can work out the situation in my life no matter how hopeless it seems to me.

A man tells of walking down the street, and passing the lady who sold flowers. She was old and wrinkled, but her face was alive with joy. As he stopped to buy a flower, the man said, "You certainly look happy this morning." She responded, cheerily, "Why not? Everything is good." The man noticed how shabbily she was dressed, knew she must be very poor, noted how frail she seemed, so he said, "I only meant that you wear your troubles well." She said, "Let me tell you how I do it. When Jesus was crucified on Good Frieday, that was the worst day for the whole world. Then, three days later - Easter - he rose again. So, when I get troubles, I've learned to wait three days. Somehow everything gets all right again." the man related, "She smiled at me as she waved good-bye. Her words still follow me whenver I think I have troubles. I 'wait three days.' "

The God of the impossible has a way, in his own time, of bringing hope out of our hopelessness and life out of our death. I don't think I can ever forget the sad, seeming finality of the words of the text, "You killed him" - but after three days the impossible was made possible, and the rest of the text resounds with victory, "But God - but God raised him from the dead!"

Bill and Gloria Gaither were right on target when they wrote in their song,

Beacuse He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He golds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives!

That's the glorious fact of Easter's resurrection!