Easter is Over, What Now?

When we come to events in our lives, we live up to them then we come down from them. We live up to an anniversary or birthday, building up to the special day with planning culminating in celebration and then we clean up and come down from the event. We live up to Christmas with shopping, parties, advent devotions, and probably in this order, we reach the day and then it is over. We clean up, eat leftovers and feel the hangover from all the gluttony of self. Easter has come and gone. We visited family, hunted eggs, ate a big meal and went to church hearing another sermon on the resurrection of Jesus. And now we are back at the daily work and labor of our lives. There is always a coming down.

Are your lives any richer because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ? There is always a coming down from an event, but this coming down should be different for the church that lives out of the resurrection. Certainly there is always the everyday work and labor, the weekly sameness. But living in the richness of the resurrection allows the Christian to see all of this in the context of everything being made new and heading to a culmination of all things in newness. As one theologian said, "The great question for us all is not whether we shall believe or disbelieve the resurrection as a single historic event, but whether we shall maintain or surrender the character of Christianity as a resurrection -religion- a religion able to bring life out of death, both here and herafter."(Geerhardus Vos, Grace and Glory). The church is seeing God bring life out of death here and with a certain hope for the future. Everyday you are living in the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He has been raised and he has ascended, he is Lord as you have passed this significant day into the sameness of everyday. He is establishing his kingdom making all things new using the hearts and hands of his church for his own glory. Therefore, though there is a coming down, all coming down is actually a building up when you live in the context of the resurrection.

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4)