We need to get less cross about pagans thinking like pagans, and bemoan the fact that we are a minority group in a pagan land these days, and instead make effort to simply love and befriend a lost world in need of a Jesus they know precious little about. Being grumpy that the world isn’t thinking about Jesus at Easter, and doesn’t understand the significance of Easter for us or them, won’t bring anyone into the kingdom.

It should come as no surprise to anybody to hear that the world, generally, do not think like believers. But as unsurprising as that news should be, it doesn’t stop believers bemoaning the fact that the world doesn’t think like believers. Nor does it stop churches consistently answering apologetic questions that nobody is actually asking and/or getting irritated when the world doesn’t accept all the evidence we provide to answer a series of perceived challenges they never asked nor find particularly compelling when we do.

This is worth thinking about now as we head into Easter. Many will be holding Maundy Thursday services. Many more will hold Good Friday services. More still will hold Easter Sunday services. Across all these services, a good number of us will be thinking about making them evangelistic. Let’s use Easter as an evangelistic opportunity, let’s invite people to our services and let’s address some potential apologetic questions in our sermons.

But if we manage to get anyone into our services at all, we spend our time answering questions nobody is really asking. We focus on things like the swoon theory or the mass hallucination theory and spend our time explaining how these things are deeply unlikely and point out nobody in the academy has defended these things for well over 100 years now. But we often seem to miss that most people have never heard the swoon theory, or any other theory. Nor are they particularly interested in it. Many are quite happy to accept those theories are deeply unpersuasive. They just can’t see the relevance of them on any level. We end up answering questions nobody is really asking.

More likely, I suspect most of us will find not that many people come into our Easter services at all. Yes, yes, I know – you no doubt no somebody who was saved at an Easter service once. Read this, this and this then get back to me. But for the most part, most people aren’t really thinking about Jesus at Easter. Nor do they really care. Even if they get an invite to our Easter service, they’re not really sure why they should bother going or what it’s got to do with them. For most, Easter is nothing more than a commercially driven long weekend and an excuse to eat some chocolate eggs.

Many Christians seem annoyed by that. People should pay attention to Easter being about Jesus. They should be more interested. Well, whether that’s true or not, they aren’t and nobody is going to start thinking about Jesus, his gospel or enter the kingdom because some Christians got annoyed that they aren’t paying attention to a church calendar they have lived their lives perfectly happily up to now ignoring. We might make them think a bit about Jesus by getting grumpy about them not thinking about Jesus, but it isn’t likely to do anything positive nor move anyone one iota closer to genuine belief in Christ.

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