Five Tips To Experience The Best Easter Ever

Secular/Insignificant Celebration Of Easter?

While celebrating Christmas seems to start earlier each year, Easter comes and goes in a flash. Blink and folks might miss it. People throw themselves into decorating, cooking, and gathering at Christmas. Easter, however, is likely relegated to buying a lily plant to display, cooking one holiday meal, and distributing chocolate usually in the same of a bunny or eggs. Even Christians don’t go all out for the holiest time on the Christian calendar as compared to Christmas. Attendance at a church service in an Easter outfit and eating a special ham dinner with family may be the extent of their activities.

Observing Jesus’ resurrection which allows for salvation deserves more of our time, effort, and attention. Experiencing a spiritually significant Easter does not have to be difficult. It does require intentionality, though.

Tip #1 To Experience The Best Easter Ever – Immerse Yourself In The Story

The resurrection story, the foundation of our faith, serves as the focus at Easter. The events involved are familiar and well-known to long-time believers. However, assuming we know the story may cause believers to place less focus and attention on it. A good way to prepare for the holy holiday, then, involves setting the scene firmly in our minds with a thorough grasp of the story’s facts and details. Following a Bible reading plan during the two weeks before Easter allows immersion in these events.

The Good Book contains the Easter story in Matthew, John, and Luke. These gospels provide a narrative of the time from Jesus entering Jerusalem to His resurrection on Easter Sunday. Rather than reading the Easter story in one sitting, break it down into small sections for daily study. For the two weeks prior to Easter, the story could be divided into the following  fourteen segments: Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem; Judas agrees to betray Jesus; The Last Supper;  The Garden of Gethsemane; Jesus prays in the Garden; Jesus delivered to Pilate; The Trial of Jesus Before Pilate; Jesus mocked; Darkness over the earth; Jesus’ death; Jesus’ body; Jesus’ burial; The Resurrection; Jesus appears to the disciples. Reading small portions each day allows the selection to be read slowly for understanding and consideration. Details not previously noticed may jump out or may now be seen in a different light.

Tip #2 To Experience The Best Easter Ever – Stimulate Your Senses

Christmas involves not only our minds with its story, but our senses as well. We see lighted stars sitting atop Christmas trees, strains of “Away In A Manger” catch our ears, and the smell of animals at a live nativity assaults our noses. Aim to make Easter a more sensory experience to feed your soul. Decorate your home with items that call to mind the Easter story. Use stuffed or ceramic lambs to remind believers of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Display fresh cut (or artificial) palm branches and donkey replicas to recall Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Colored egg decorations symbolize the new life available to those who accept salvation available through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Find songs referencing Easter or Jesus’ resurrection to play in your home or car.

Not commonly associated with Easter, smells add to the observance. Joseph of Arimathea prepared Jesus’ body for burial using myrrh, aloe, spices and incense. Today, essential oils offered for sale include those made with myrrh. A diffuser can scent your home air to call to mind Jesus’ horrible death served a sweet purpose—to allow a way for our reconciliation with God. Use of linen strips set near a diffuser contributes a tactile element, the feel of the material used to wrap Jesus’ dead body according to the custom of the day.

Tip #3 To Experience The Best Easter Ever – Visualize It

To get a better grasp of the Easter story and thus achieve the best Easter ever, visualize it by preparing a map of the area. Use a poster board or blank sheet of paper to mark various places in Jerusalem where events occurred. Locations to designate could include where Jesus entered the city, the Temple, the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, and Golgotha. Post the map in a conspicuous space to remind you of the story and to think where Jesus would be then during His last week on earth.

Tip #4 To Experience The Best Easter Ever – Have An Inquiring Mind

The more believers learn about the context in which the Easter story took place, the more that story can be appreciated. While reading through the Bible passages about it, do so with an inquiring mind. Ask and then look up the answer to questions about people, places, and practices which receive mention. For example, the Roman soldiers forced Jesus to carry His cross. How much did a Roman cross usually weigh? Jesus’ arrest occurred in the Garden of Gethsemane. Was it a big area in which the arresting authorities looked for Him? Peter denied Jesus three times, realizing this betrayal when a rooster crowed. Were roosters common in the big city of Jerusalem?

Tip #To Experience The Best Easter Ever – Re-enact It

Perhaps the most effective way to become immersed in the Easter story involves re-enacting events in it. The Last Supper in particular offers a good scene. Throw cushions on the floor around a coffee table and serve bread to be dipped in seasoned oil accompanied by grape juice or wine. Discuss who may have sat where for this meal and why. Designate someone to play Jesus and to wash the feet of others. Talk about how doing this task for others or having it done to you felt. Reflect on what Jesus thought while performing this act of service.

Five Tips To Experience The Best Easter Ever

Because of the great significance of Easter to the Christian faith, approaching the religious holiday with intentionality deepens its meaning. Five tips can help believers to experience the best Easter ever. These tips include reading the Easter story carefully and for understanding during the days preceding Easter Sunday, incorporating stimulation of the senses to heighten the recognition of the holiday, visualizing the area where important events occurred, facing Easter with an inquiring mind which raises questions to enhance learning, and re-enacting important scenes in the Easter story. These actions may make this your best Easter ever spiritually.