You know the problem with Easter? It’s just not commercial enough. If only there were more corporations trying to make money out if it. The word Easter should be associated with money-making activity wherever possible. After all, we’re a Christian country, right?

That at least appears to be the logic of the archbishop of York. He’s furious with Cadbury for removing the word Easter from a hunt for chocolate eggs. It’s “tantamount to spitting on the grave” of the company’s Quaker founder, John Sentamu says. Despite a descendant of Cadbury pointing out that it was unlikely he was spinning in said grave, given that as a Quaker, he didn’t celebrate Easter, Theresa May weighed in to add that the company is being “absolutely ridiculous”. And she should know: she’s a vicar’s daughter and a National Trust member who also happens to be the prime minister.

No more towering an authority on society and religion than Nigel Farage has opined, alongside a picture of a foil-wrapped rabbit-shaped sweetmeat, “We must defend our Judeo-Christian culture and that means Easter.”

It’s all so confusing, though, because do you know what the other problem is with Easter? It’s just too commercial. People not long ago were writing in despairing tones about Easter becoming like Christmas, and the rise in popularity of Easter crackers. “Too many companies are using Easter to sell stuff” pretty much sums up the argument.

The truth is that the church has got into a bit of a muddle about Easter. Given that the very word Easter has nothing to do with Christianity, and that its associated confectionery products have nothing to do with Christianity, it’s odd indeed to see an archbishop and an avowedly Christian prime minister get so worked up.

Maybe my copy of the Bible is missing a couple of pages, but I’m not aware of Jesus’s disciples celebrating the Lord’s resurrection by scouring the land for ovoid blends of cocoa solids and vegetable fat. And I’ve had a good look in all the gospels but, try as I might, I just can’t find the bit where Jesus commands his followers to use the name of a pagan goddess for an annual festival to mark his triumph over death. It’s almost as if those aspects of Easter derive from an entirely separate tradition.

And then there’s the fact that the church doesn’t always seem to know what it’s celebrating at Easter. Those of a more evangelical persuasion often tend to emphasise the events of Good Friday, which to some marks the moment when Jesus was effectively sacrificed by his own father to atone for the sins of the world. Others might focus on the reanimated body of Jesus and take it as evidence that Jesus was indeed divine and is still alive in some form. Still others might see the resurrection in purely symbolic terms, questioning whether the gospel accounts are intended to be understood literally.

There will be some whose celebration of Easter will encompass aspects of those in varying proportion, plus maybe some extra stuff, perhaps about what it means for our souls and the afterlife. Chuck in some ancient folklore and springtime ritual, and the whole thing’s a bit of a mess. We all know what Christmas is about. But Easter?

At risk of being condemned for heresy, this lifelong Anglican who immerses himself every year into the bleak theatre of Holy Week would argue that its importance to Christianity is actually overstated. Jesus had me at “love your enemies”. He sealed the deal with “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”, the parables of the good samaritan, the prodigal son, his transgression of the gender norms of the time, his emphasis on mercy and forgiveness, his reaching out to society’s outcasts, his practical help to the sick and hungry. That’s enough for me, as it evidently was to his disciples, who gave up what they had to follow him long before any crucifixion or resurrection.

You have to question why so many supposedly devout people demand more, why they insist that this man must die a cruel and unjust death and then come back to life before deciding he might be worth listening to.

As for Easter, surely the whole point is its symbolism. If the best we can say about Jesus was that he came back to life after appearing to die, then he’s something of a curio, worthy of little more than a place in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!. But if we believe the Easter story asserts that life and love are stronger than death and hate, then it’s something that all who believe in a better world can buy into. In fact, this might be one of those cases in which secular culture can teach Christians a thing or two about their own faith. A note to the archbishop and the prime minister: Easter is bigger than Christianity. And that’s surely something to celebrate.