Easter Sunday marks a time for Christians everywhere to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but their faith can be tested when problems like commercialization and other motivations for celebration risk depriving the holiday of its meaning.

Easter tends to see a rise in the number of church attendees. Brian Peck, president of The Rock Christian Students, believes family values can frequently be a contributor to the spike in churchgoers.

“Maybe people especially go because maybe their mom would appreciate that you go at least this one day a year,” Peck said. “It’s kind a special thing. I think a lot of it is tied to families.”

There is a perception that there are many so-called “twice-a-year Christians,” especially in America.

“People have said many times that going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than being in a garage makes you a car,” Peck said. “[Church] isn’t described in scripture as what Christianity is about.”

Michael Patterson, senior in computer engineering and president of the Campus Crusade for Christ, agrees attendance and labels aren’t as important as what people get out of going to church.

“God doesn’t work on some type of point system where those who attend church regularly are ‘good’ Christians and those who attend church only on Christmas and Easter are ‘bad’ Christians,” Patterson said. “That’s just not how it works, and the Bible makes this extremely clear.”

With the commercialization that comes with many Christian holidays, the original meanings of these holidays, as well as Christianity in general, are often misunderstood. Reverend Whit Malone, pastor at the Collegiate Presbyterian Church in Ames, thinks that from an outsider’s perspective, it must be confusing.

“Do we worship Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or Jesus?,” Malone said. “For some it must look like we really just worship ourselves with the amount of money and energy we expend on the cultural trappings of Christmas and Easter.”

However, Malone doesn’t condemn these perceptions. He instead sees most of what Christians do as a culture during their holidays as an expression of hunger to believe in and live for something bigger than they are. Patterson agrees, saying Easter can be celebrated however people wish.

“If I want to spend the entire day of Easter thinking about Jesus, I’m free to do so,” Patterson said. “Similarly, if I want to buy huge amounts of chocolate and spend Easter eating it, I’m also free to do so.”

Patterson said that the commercialization of holidays is simply a product of the consumerist society that we live in today, and that he’s not personally offended by it at all.

Above all, Malone believes Easter means that love wins.

“Jesus loved even to death,” Malone said. “His resurrection means that love is more powerful than death. And this is not just about the afterlife, though I look forward to that too. Because unconditional love wins in the end, we can risk loving unconditionally here on earth.”

“It’s really … the climax of everything [Jesus] did,” Peck said. “I think that [1 Corinthians 15:12-14] really sums it up. The reality is … that if Christ wasn’t resurrected, we’d ultimately be wasting our lives.”

“But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” — 1 Corinthians 15:12-14