If you like the holiday, be sure to read the book

I’m re-reading my favorite book. In it, the main character is betrayed by one of his closest friends, arrested on false charges, and brutally tortured and killed.

It’s OK, because three days later he comes back to life – true story!

This weekend we celebrate that glorious event. Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, is this Sunday. This year it has snuck up on me. I’ve been incredibly busy lately and just haven’t had much time to think about it. Now, I’m thinking about it.

Easter is probably the most sacred celebration in Christianity. Unfortunately, it, like Christmas, is getting swallowed up by the secular holiday that has absorbed it. It’s disheartening that egg-laying bunnies have replaced the cross-bearing Christ. That lament, however, is as old as Easter itself. No one seems to know for sure how the sacred and secular have blended over the centuries, but they have.

(For the record, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. That’s why it’s not on the same day each year.)

As a kid, I always looked forward to egg hunts and quantitative consumption of confections, especially jelly beans. I grew up in the church, so the story of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection were old and boring. I felt the same way at Christmas. I wanted my presents under the Christmas tree. I didn’t care much for the tale of the virgin birth.

As I became an adult, I grew to appreciate the religious significance of the holidays and now prefer them over the secular stuff. That being said, I was a mall Santa for two years when my children were little and I reprised the role in a church play several years ago. My wife, Sandy, has been the Easter Bunny at church for many years. She’s also been a dancing fruitcake, but that’s a story for another time.

Playing Santa is quite an experience. The most common question I get from people is if a kid has ever peed on me. That’s usually a reference to a scene in the 1980s movie “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” No, it has never happened to me. The worst thing that happened to me as the Jolly Old Elf was when a mom took her crying infant from my arms and walked away with my beard in hand, stretching the elastic bands as far as they would go. After readjusting my whiskers, I looked down the long line of kiddos and all I could see were wide eyes and dropped jaws.

Getting back to the holidays, there was a time when I was fanatical about discarding the pagan pageantry from the sacred celebrations. I even suggested that Christians consider adopting a date for Resurrection Sunday and letting Easter fall where it may. I was most passionate about this in 2004 when “The Passion of the Christ” came out. Although I still think that’s a good idea, I don’t see it getting any traction.

I’ve only seen the movie directed by Mel Gibson once in its entirety, and that was at a press screening before its wide release. I bought the DVD when it came out, but have only watched snippets of it. The scene where Jesus is being whipped is just too brutal to stomach. The dialogue is in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew, so to understand what’s being said you have to read subtitles. That requires too much focus and attention for me. Still, each Easter I tell myself I’m going to sit down and watch it. I’ll let you know if that happens.

(For the record, the book is better than the movie.)

I don’t recall the exact year, but sometime in the 1990s a non-Christian acquaintance grew tired of my holier-than-thou attitude and asked if I had actually read the Bible from cover to cover. Embarrassed to say no, I opened up my copy the next day and started reading from Genesis 1:1 and going straight through. I average about a chapter a day and it normally takes about two years or so for me to read the whole thing. In more recent years I’ve taken to listening to it with the Bible app on my cell phone.

I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve read (or listened) to the Bible, but it’s got to be around 10 times already. I have no plans to stop. It’s a very important part of my day and my life. The number of times I read it isn’t important. It’s what I get out of it that is.

I guess writing this column is my way of making amends for nearly forgetting Easter and bringing my attention back to the most important things in life. My column is called Faith, Family & Fun, and the faith part comes first for a reason. There is nothing more sacred or important to me than the grace of God and the gift of eternal life in Heaven through the blood sacrificed by Jesus Christ.

Because of that I will continue to re-read my favorite book. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it. It’s been on the best-seller list for centuries.

Joe Southern is the managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.