Christmas and Easter Irony

One of my favorite comic strips is "Non Sequitur".  The characters are witty, the humor is biting and the author likes poking fun at the absurdities of society.  Today's strip is as follows:

Ok, so I get the joke.  Two players playing for competing holidays spending time together.  But the irony is, the holidays actually do go together.  It's not just in secret in the off-season that they 'canoodle', but by their nature they are inseparable.

The problem is that the holidays that were once cornerstones of the Christian identity in the United States have become secularized and commercialized.  This is true particularly in Bahrain.  Stores catering to westerners stock up on Santa figurines and Easter egg decorating kits.  The holidays have a very secular flavor.

But the two holidays are inherently intertwined.  Christmas, you see, is the holiday in which we celebrate God coming to earth, in the form of Jesus.  The primary purpose of Jesus coming was to atone for our sins, to provide an avenue to wash away our shame and make it possible to has a real relationship with God.  That process happened during the death and resurrection of Jesus - Easter.  Without Christmas, we cannot have Easter.  And without Easter, Christmas is meaningless.