Joe Allotta

This is truly the most epic battle in history. It pales in comparison to Persians v Spartans, or Star Trek v Star Wars, or Batman v Superman. What makes this gladiator match so epic is how intertwined they are. If it wasn’t for Jesus’ Resurrection on Easter then no one would celebrate His birth at Christmas; but if it wasn’t for His incarnation and birth at Christmas then Jesus wouldn’t be around to die on the cross and raise from the dead on Easter. So which one is more important? Well obviously like any super-team, they need each other; but we will not rest until we declare who’s greater. They’re such good events that I’m sure they don’t want to fight, but too bad, we want a winner.

Popularity

Both are pretty popular. However, they are mostly popular for stupid, pagan reasons. Easter got confused with bunnies, egg hunts, and candy. Christmas got mixed up with decorations, food, and presents. If this was all that was compared, I don’t think anyone would argue with me on a big, blowout win for Christmas. (The Presents!!!) However, even at their core, I think that most Christians would pick Christmas. People love that baby Jesus. He’s not convicting and doesn’t ask us to do anything.

Winner: Christmas

Rarity

This one depends on how you look at it. There are thousands of variations on stories throughout history about a god becoming a man. The uniqueness of Christmas isn’t in the story itself; it’s that this time it actually happened! Likewise, people being raised from the dead have been recorded in several instances. Even the bible itself has several documented cases of prophets resurrecting people from the dead. The uniqueness of Easter is that Jesus raised himself from the dead! So both are certainly rare. However, the idea of the Creator of the universe becoming a human being and living among us is just a little bit more unique.

Winner: Christmas

Wow-factor

Christmas is amazing, no doubt. But the story itself is a little slow. It’s 9-months from the incarnation to His birth, then there’s some excitement when Herod tries to kill Him, but then nothing to talk about for another decade when Jesus starts His ministry of throwing shade on the religious leaders. Easter on the other hand is just cinematic. The Triumphal Entry. The Fallen Hero. The Empty Grave. It’s the Greatest Story Ever Told.

Winner: Easter

Value

Christmas brought union and fellowship between God and man. It displayed itself physically possible through the person of Jesus Christ. It revealed God’s love to mankind for Him to send His one and only Son. Easter then brought Salvation to mankind. It bridged the gap between God and man. It displayed an even greater love – sacrifice.

Winner: Easter

Uh, oh. After losing the first 2 quarters, Easter came roaring back to knot-it all up. So what would be a good tie-breaker?

Which one could you do without?

Batman AND Superman are both awesome for different reasons, but if there’s no Superman on the Justice League then the planet is destroyed back in 1960. If the birth of Christ didn’t happen and He simply “appeared” on the scene then it would be hard to convince us that He was really human, which is vitally important to sharing salvation with mankind. However, it would be impossible to convince anyone that Jesus defeated sin without dying and rising from the dead. Sin brought both spiritual death and physical death. If Jesus doesn’t defeat death, why would we think He defeated sin. His Resurrection proves He showed death and sin who was boss. It’s reasonable to believe He forgave us our sins after that display. If he goes around just telling everyone they’re forgiven, without doing anything, then He’s no better than Oprah or Rob Bell. (At least Oprah gave some people cars and Rob Bell gave us Nooma videos like 20 years ago.) But Jesus did do something. He proved that He had the ability to take on sin and death in a handicapped match, and beat them down in 3 rounds.

Winner: Easter

Easter is the Champ… for now.  

The Return of Christ is coming and the early word is that it’s going to be Off The Chain!!! The Dawn of Justice began at His first coming. He put the religious people in their place. He gave hope to the weak, poor, and helpless. He purified His people through His work on the cross. He judged sin and death and took away their sting. And now the Creator and Savior of the world is still alive. He is still saving souls and judging sin. More is coming, but the Dawn of Justice has begun.

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P.s. I liked Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  (Don’t worry, no Spoilers… unless you don’t realize that Batman and Superman are going to fight, but I think the title gives that away.)  The movie has some poor character development… If you don’t know who Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are :-/  The dream sequences are bizarre and out of place. However, they are all giant Easter eggs filled with nerdtastic goodies. It’s unapologetically a long preview for the Justice League movie. So some of the out of place scenes that throw off the pacing are only necessary in view getting them out of the way to not waste time in the Justice League movie and unanswered questions I assume will be answered later. Where the movie does have strikes against it and you have to love either Batman or Superman already to stay engaged early on, the final act is a home run. It accomplishes the hardest task in giving a legit reason for Bat and Supes to fight; and make it reasonable for Batman to be able to hang with him. The final big bad is a little rushed but a good fight nonetheless. I don’t think I like the direction of Lex yet, but that might change. People hated how Superman basically destroyed Metropolis in Man of Steele. But that destruction is the entire driving force behind the plot of this movie. So I’ll wait. It’s clearly the best movie ever with both Batman and Superman in it.