One day last week I found myself in a mall staring at what probably is one of the largest rabbits in the city (no, this was not a dream). Surely, I thought that this is a display for the local pet shop or some children’s zoo or some such. Unfortunately, I was mistaken (in the back of my mind I knew that I probably would be). Sure enough Mr. Rabbit was firmly seated in what probably was Mr. Red Suit’s seat just a few months prior. Wreaths replaced with baskets, candy canes with eggs, and so on…
Somehow, staring into the stuffed bunny’s woeful eyes did not bring to mind anything even remotely connected to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, isn’t that what Easter (a term derived from the goddess Astarte which has nothing to do with the Bible either) is all about? Let’s take a quick look at the Bible and see if we can properly place Mr. Rabbit.
A few thousand years ago, a man named Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt by many signs, wonders and miracles. One of these was known as the Passover. On the night before the children of Israel left Egypt, the angel of death “Passed Over” the land of Egypt and the first-born man, woman, or animal in each household died. The Israelites, however, had been instructed to kill a lamb, to eat it’s flesh and to wipe it’s blood on the door posts of their houses. The blood represented the covering of the sins for the Israelites and the eating of the flesh represented health to their bodies. Because they obeyed God in doing this, the children of Israel were protected from the angel of death. No rabbits yet.
This Passover was symbolic of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It Is Written in the Word of God that,
I Corinthians 5:7
“…For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”
To those who have confessed Jesus as Lord and have believed that God raised him from the dead, Jesus Christ is their Passover. For all Christians, the blood of Jesus Christ represents the remission of sins and the body of Jesus Christ was broken for the healing of every believer’s body. Not only have all the sins been taken care of by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ but healing is available to every Christian as well. These two very important parts involved in the work that he did are represented today in the communion service by the wine and bread. The wine represents the blood that was spilled for the remission of our sins, and the bread represents his body that was broken so that we could have access to healing. Roger Rabbit is nowhere to be seen.
OK, OK, just to clear the air, I have absolutely nothing against rabbits – in fact, every Spring, a few make their home in our yard. What I do take exception to is when the Word of God is over-shadowed by tradition to such an extent that the truth of the scriptures is lost or forgotten. This robs Christianity of all of it’s power and supplants the Lord Jesus Christ by the likes of Bugs Bunny. Secondly, I also take exception to parents allowing this sort of gross distortion of the scriptures to be planted in the minds of their children. Let me ask you – what message would you rather have your children digest – chocolate eggs laid by a rabbit, or deliverance from sin, sickness and disease? If the former, get out your family Bible now; if the latter, break the rabbit habit!