“Faith Facts” is a series of short write-ups (approximately 350 words) that can be used in church bulletins or as brief explainer during Christian worship.
Download: Bulletin insert (5.5″x8.5″).
Faith Facts
White and gold are the colors of Easter.
At Easter, it’s popular to decorate with pastel pink, baby blue, and other soft, Spring tones. But in the Church, different colors are used: gold and especially white. It shows up in white cloths with gold-embroidered crosses or lambs, white lilies, and more. When I decorated the church for Easter this year, my 6-year-old son’s eyes widened and he exclaimed, “Everything is so white!”
The reason for this is simple: White and gold are the colors most associated with the resurrection in the Bible. The angels at the empty tomb wore robes “white as snow” (Mt. 28:2–3; Mk. 16:5; Jn. 20:12). At the transfiguration, a foretaste of resurrection glory, Christ’s clothes became “white as light” (Mt. 17:2), dazzling white beyond earthly bleaching (Mk. 9:3). When Christ appeared to John among the golden lampstands, proclaiming, “I am alive forevermore,” he was dressed in a (white) robe with a golden sash (Rev. 1:13), and even his hair was “white, like white wool, like snow” (Rev. 1:14). Christ is depicted like Gandalf when he became Mithrandir, coming on a white horse, followed by armies on white horses arrayed in “fine line, pure and white” (Rev. 19:11–14).
White, the color of purity and light, reminds us that Christ is free from the defilement of death, alive to give us life, to wash our robes white in his blood (Rev. 7:14), and to endue us with a glorified body like his own. Gold, the color of glory and kingship, reminds us that Christ died and rose to be Lord of the living and the dead, and now extends the riches of God’s kingdom to all believers.
God created color. God loves color. God declared color “very good.” In the Old Testament, God was very specific about which colors were to be used in sacred worship. The authors of the New Testament, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, continue to tell us the color of things. Why wouldn’t we use the colors associated with the resurrection in our worship during the Easter season?
