I have a poster on my refrigerator door that I took out of the Dutch magazine Daphne’s Diary which pronounces “I love Cooking,” and I do. Each holiday has special meaning layered on it by the cuisine associated with that day. There is time and planning that goes into making each meal a special occasion. Then, there is the actual cooking and hospitality that must be attended to. Easter has many wonderful foods anssociated with it. There are Easter breads, lamb and ham. The classic spring vegetables are part of the meal too, such as radishes, carrots, Brussels Sprouts, and lettuce.
This year, I have decided upon lamb as my main course. My mother favored a crown of lamb with a mustard bread crumb crust and fresh kitchen herb flavoring throughout. My father loved ham as the centerpiece of the meal. I love all of the above but, I also love to change things up every year. My husband enjoys lamb lollipops so, I will marianate them in a homemade mint pesto sauce and keep some leftover to have as a dipping sauce. I will serve that on a platter with a pile of lamb sirloin steaks spiced with a blend of ground cumin, coriander, cinnamon and turmeric in the Ras el Hanout flavor style. Simple roasted vegetables will complement that. I let the oven do the work. I will also make an asparagus, Emmentaler Swiss Cheese, and ham bread pudding as a side dish.
Dessert this year will consist of mini lemon Bundt cakes, homemade ice cream, chocolate covered cookies, individually wrapped candies placed in Easter baskets, and fruit. Cooking has been a lifelong adventure for me. Every year, I make different meals for Easter. I have many recipes to choose from so it never gets boring. I take my inspiration from around the world and have often went outside my own family traditions to add cultural and culinary interest. There have been Eastern European breads and deserts, German and French additions and South American Easter specialities. Do my recipes always come out one hundred percent authentic? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no, since every cooking technique takes time to develop. My aim is fresh, healthy and fun meals.
When it is time to serve dessert, I will offer a chose of tea or coffee. Over the years, I have received coffee carafes and tea pots as gifts. I picked up some from my travels too. I enjoy bringing them out when I have company. This would be a good opportunity to bring out my many tea pots for people to enjoy. I love all of my tea pots!
One of them is a tea pot from Uzbekistan with its’ vibrant cobalt blue and white pattern. The finish is extraordinary and the pot looks like it was made in a kiln, not commercially produced. I still remember my encounter with a group of Uzbeks at a Russian market in years past. My Russian translator stepped away for a few moments to help others in my group and I was left alone wandering a rural farmers market some distance from Moscow.
As I looked around, I saw a collection of tea pots whose color and beauty drew my attention. I was a little nervous not knowing the language and stood at a distance admiring all the pots. The men selling them were clearly Uzbeks distinct from all the Russian faces at this farmer’s market. These pots bespoke the earth and traditions of their people. As I stared at the different sizes and patterns I realized this was the only souvenir that I really wanted to bring home and enjoy.
I have been reading scriptures specifically associated with Easter but, upon reflection I realize the entire Bible always points to the eventual sacrifice, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ when you look really closely. Passover, which is now being celebrated by Jews around the world, describes a deliverance after a blood sacrifice from an unblemished lamb. The blood of an animal had to oft be repeated in recompense for the sins of the Jewish nation. “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats”-Exodus 12:5.
All over the world, people somehow intuited that this should be done. “I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you.”- in part, Exodus 12:13. However, an animal was not the solution but it pointed to the solution. It would point to and give understanding to the eventual blood of a sinless man being a final propitiation for sin forevermore. “By the which will we be sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”-Hebrews 10:10.
What can I do to make this Easter special after all that Jesus did for me? Nothing. There is nothing that I can do that is anywhere near equal to what he has done. I see what Jesus has done as I read the news headlines around the world. What a mess we are, all of us, if we would only draw nearer to Jesus some of this would get better. “For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves: its the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast”-Ephesians 2:8-9.
Just as I preview the meal and ready for its’ execution and try to anticipate the needs of my guests, I must also take time to think of their spiritual needs too. The people who will be sitting around the table are at different places with Jesus. There are those who don’t believe in him, there are some immature Christians who will be present and in need of guidance, as well as seasoned Christians.
As I pull trays of perfectly cooked vegetables out of the oven, and I am satisfied that my light and airy lemon cakes will satisfy, I know that central to the event are spiritual matters. What do my guests think of Jesus and the Easter message? What questions will come up at dinner and in the next week or two when I welcome some guests for a visit?
I realize that while I put in a lot of time and energy to make sure that I am a hospitable hostess, that I have spent precious little time thinking about their spiritual needs. I am being like Martha in the story of Mary and Martha in the Bible. For a reminder of that story go to Luke 10:28-42 and John 11 and 12. Mary was more concerned with spiritual things and Martha was more concerned with the physical needs of her guests. So, after everything is cooked except the lamb dishes that I will cook after church, I decide it is time to open my bible.
From year to year, the time of Easter brings discussions of the origin of the holiday. No, not the commeration of Jesus’ death and resurrection but the pagan origins of the term Easter and its’ background. There are many in the Christian world who would like to give up the name of Easter and instead use the expression Resurrection Day to point directly to what the meaning of this holiday is.
Then, there are Christians who correctly point out the biblical directive not to celebrate holidays should mean we don’t have a Resurrection Day Celebration but instead have that celebration in our hearts throughout the year. It is hard to argue with any of these things since Catholics in effect did not allow people to decide if they wanted to follow Jesus or Eostre the fertility goddess whose spring holiday celebrated her arrival with eggs and bunnies. Instead, they simply overlaid the pagan practices with Christian ideas and because of that we have been living with compromise of Christian principles ever since. We have a mismosh of ancient pagan rituals mixed with Judeo-Christian beliefs.
We have created some sort of Frankenstein monster by putting all these parts together thinking that we are creating something good but instead have compromised what God has said. It’s what we human beings do. So, I have learned to personally try and bring out different points to help people where they are in this battle between Resurrection Day VS Easter Bunny.
We are all in a spiritual journey with God whether we know it or not. God desires that all should come to him. If we knock, he will answer but change often does not come easy and we wrestle with the principles of living a godly life. Of all the things we wrestle with, it is ludicrous to include the cult of the Easter Bunny with that. Don’t underestimate the dark forces behind this for the devil masquerades as an angel of light. “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily”-Colossians 2:8-9.
I have to allow the fruits of the Holy Spirit to shine through in my hospitality and in my discussions regarding the meaning of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control”-Galatians 5:22-23.
