Why do we celebrate with chocolate eggs and bunnies if Easter is about Jesus?

We love Easter in my family. Maybe that’s obvious for a Christian family, but as passionate rabbit owners and chocolate addicts there is not much about this weekend that we don’t love! But despite our enthusiasm for the commercial Easter celebrations, as a family it is easy to feel disconnected with the real reason we celebrate Easter. After all, why do we celebrate with chocolate eggs and bunnies if Easter is actually about Jesus?

Here are 5 ways to connect the dots this Easter:

1. The hollow egg and the empty tomb

While you’re crunching into those giant eggs, take a moment to ask your children why it’s hollow? I mean, wouldn’t it be better if it was filled with more chocolate!? Surely an empty egg is a bad thing? Before greed takes over, remind your children that eggs aren’t the only empty thing this Easter Sunday. Allow the hollow egg to point you to the empty tomb.

Allow your heart to grow in anticipation of a saviour who does not disappoint us or leave us lacking

When the women arrived in the garden that morning and found the stone rolled away it wasn’t disappointment they felt at the hollowness, it was joy! “He is not here, he is risen, just as he said!” (Matthew 28:6). As you snap through the hard shell imagine the anticipation the women felt in that moment. What was Jesus doing? Would they get to see him again? As you chomp your way through the chocolate you might want to wonder those same questions. Allow your heart to grow in anticipation of a saviour who does not disappoint us or leave us lacking.

2. The spring that brings new life

When my rabbits are happy they do giant leaps called binkies, like a hop and a dance all combined into one movement. It’s like there is so much joy in them that it springs out uncontrollably! But it’s not their binkies that bring rabbits attention at this time, it is the sheer number of them! Whether you’re walking in the fields or visiting the farms you’ll find there is new life everywhere in spring.

Let the new life of springtime remind you of the new life you have in Christ Jesus

New life would have been blooming in the garden as Jesus was arrested. He’d have trodden down daisies as he climbed calvary. He’d have hung on the cross under the spring sun hearing the birds chirping and the lambs bleating. The sadness of the cross is not opposed to the joy of springtime because it is through the cross that Jesus gives us new life. As your children point out the blooming flowers and laugh at the joyful rabbits, let it lead you to the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world (John 1:29). Let the new life of springtime remind you of the new life you have in Christ Jesus.

3. The sweetness & joy of delicious treats

Whether you’re tucking into a juicy joint of roast lamb, lathering your freshly toasted hot cross buns in butter, or wiping sticky chocolate off tiny fingers, there is no denying that this time of year is characterised by delicious food. Maybe you’ve given up some of your favourite treats through Lent and so this weekend you can enjoy your forbidden food at last. Instead of fixating on the food, take a moment to lift your gaze to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).

let those treats point you to the real sweetness of this Easter weekend in the person and work of Christ

While your family tucks into some tasty treats why not take a moment to share stories of how you have tasted the Lord’s goodness. Let your conversation take you to calvary, the cross, the crown of thorns and the crying women, because as those of us returning to our favourite foods after lent can testify, goodness tastes so much sweeter when you have lingered in the lack of it.

Easter is a joyful celebration of the goodness of God extravagantly poured out on the cross and it’s right to celebrate that truth with our favourite foods but let those treats point you to the real sweetness of this Easter weekend in the person and work of Christ.

4. The hunt for goodness

One of our favourite activities at Easter is the egg hunt. Sometimes we use signs and clues, but often we just run about aimlessly! Hundreds of years before Jesus was born God promised that “you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). God has done everything possible for you to know him; all you need to do is simply open your heart. Many people have suggested that God makes it hard for us to know him by hiding in mystery, but as well as the obvious signs in creation that help us see God (Romans 1:20) Jesus came walking and living among people just like us so that we could know him and find him.

Let the joy of the hunt fill you with hope this Easter that God is findable

When my teenager decides to sit on the sofa instead of hunting for eggs, he will be making a choice not to find, and not to receive any of the goodness that is freely available to him. No matter how obvious the hidden eggs or the signs and clues might be, if we don’t look then we won’t find, and we then cannot share in the goodness of God that is freely available this Easter. Let the joy of the hunt fill you with hope this Easter that God is findable and let it stir you to pray for those that you love who are hunting for him.

5. The hunger for more

As the Easter services come to an end and the plastic eggs get packed into the cupboard, the temptation to head to the shops and take advantage of the reduced Easter chocolate creeps in. I’m sure mine won’t be the only kids asking for ‘more’ on Monday. Whether you choose to indulge them or not you can use this opportunity to point to the hunger inside of us spiritually as we wait for Jesus’ second coming. In the weeks following Easter, Jesus was preparing to go to heaven, but now we are preparing for him to come back! Jesus promised his friends “I will come back and take you to be with me” (John 14:3).

Read more:

Making Holy Week unforgettable: Creative Easter traditions for families

There is no good parenting without Good Friday

Christian parents will find that the Real Easter Egg collection from the Meaningful Chocolate Company is well worth trying

The Garden the Curtain and the Cross is a great resource for Christian parents to try in the run up to Easter

We can have all of the chocolate eggs in the supermarket and still not be full because only Jesus can truly satisfy us, He says “whoever comes to me will never be hungry” (John 6:35). Jesus isn’t talking about rumbly tummies and chocolate cravings; he is pointing to a deeper truth that the world cannot give us. No matter what other pleasures the adverts promise us we will keep on craving for ‘more’ because we were made to find fulfilment in Jesus alone. The disappointment that Easter is over should point us to the hope for a new Easter to come - “Everything that God made is waiting with excitement for the time when God will show the world who his children are. The whole world is longing for that to happen” (Romans 8:19). Jesus is coming back and our longing and hungering will then be truly satisfied in something far greater than chocolate eggs and rabbits. I can’t wait!