After a long few weeks since Valentines day advertisers and stores seem anxious to pull out their next festive decorations. At some point mid-March, or as soon as St. Patrick’s day is over, a flood begins of pink and purple and yellow eggs and rabbits and flowers. When the Cadbury bunny starts popping up on TV and in your Facebook Ads, dropping those colorful chocolate eggs everywhere, you know it must be close to Easter.
Of course this can be a little distressing for Christians, as we see our purpose for Easter getting lost and forgotten by some amidst the wave of chocolate and cuteness. But I have some good news. It would seem the Easter Egg was not intended as a distraction to the Christian celebration of Easter, but rather a tool to help remember its meaning.
A bird egg is a pretty remarkable thing
A bird egg is a pretty remarkable thing. The mother lays the egg. Its shell is so hard and smooth it looks like stone. Inside a miracle takes place and when the time comes a new life inside it stirs and breaks through the brittle shell. The young bird emerges and sheds the broken shards of the egg to see the light of day for the first time.
For many Christians over the centuries eggs were one of the rich foods they’d give up for Lent. That’s one of the origins of pancake Tuesday, as people sought to use up their eggs and indulge one last time before the Lenten season. But chickens don’t just stop laying because we stop eating. So, by the end of Lent and the beginning of the Easter celebration many Christians had an abundance of eggs and a true excitement to eat them.
Outside it looks lifeless. But, after a time, from inside breaks out new life.
So with a surplus of eggs this provided a great opportunity for Christians to not only share the Gospel but remind one another and their children of the Easter story.
The egg, with its hard shell, was used to represent Jesus’ tomb. Outside it looks lifeless. But, after a time, from inside breaks out new life. 
In some traditions the eggs were painted red to represent the blood of Christ shed for us.
Easter egg hunts were organized to represent searching out the risen Jesus. Egg rolling was a game to remember how the stone was rolled away from the entrance of Jesus’ tomb.
Even Martin Luther is said to have been a fan of Easter Eggs and Easter Egg hunts.
In a book from 1879 I found this lovely description:
A little girl found a nest in the garden with four speckled eggs in it. One day, some time afterward, she and her older brother went to the nest again; but instead of the beautiful eggs, she found nothing but the empty, broken shells.
“Oh!” she cried, “the beautiful eggs are all broken and spoiled.”
“No, indeed,” said her brother, “not spoiled, for the best and most beautiful part–the bird itself–has taken wings and flown away.”
Just so, on that first Easter morning, Jesus came to life and walked out of the tomb, and left it, as it were, an empty shell… Thus you see that though an egg seems to be as dead as a stone, yet it really has life in it; and also it is like Christ’s dead body, which was raised to life again. This is the reason we use eggs on Easter.
– The Guardian, Volume 30 by H. Harbaugh
So as you celebrate Easter this year and walk through a mall decorated with Easter eggs, or paint eggs with your kids or snack on some delicious, Fair Trade chocolate eggs as a family you can use it as an opportunity to remember the tomb of Jesus and the wondrous miracle when he defeated sin and death, breaking their power and emerged from the tomb by the glory of the Father, raised to new life forevermore!
You can bite into that Easter egg and remember He is risen!
We are hosting a Community Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday March 25th. The festivities begin at 12pm shortly after our 10:15am service. Everyone is invited for the hunt and snacks and games and prizes and maybe even pony rides! If you’re a member of St. George’s please be available to help with setup and coordinating the event.
Go to the event page here or you can stay up to date and RSVP on the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/222433858105605/
