We celebrated Christ’s resurrection, but what now?

All Christian worship testifies to the resurrection of Christ. Jesus rose on the first day of the week. 

And we worship on the first day of every week, Sundays, the Lord’s day, to say to the world that we serve a risen Saviour. Sunday worship speaks on every Sunday of the importance of the resurrection of Jesus to every Christian and to all of humanity.

 

But because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the pinnacle of our faith, we also have 7 Sundays, until Ascension Day and Pentecost Sunday that we call Eastertide – a Season of focused learning about the impact on our lives when we say that we serve a risen Saviour. To contemplate the eternal impact that Christ has risen indeed!

 

Seven weeks of Easter? What would we do for 50 days? Surely, we so not suggest seven consecutive Easter egg hunts, or “leg of lamb dinners” in a row. And more importantly, celebrating Eastertide is not duplicating Easter Sunday seven times over in Church. No, it’s about taking time to reflect upon and delight in the truth of serving a living Lord.

 

The basic truth of Easter is simple: Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Therefore, the implications of the resurrection are so much more than we can learn about during a 20-minute sermon on Easter Sunday! So, we need the seven weeks of Eastertide to reflect deeply on the many-sided meaning of our Lord’s resurrection.

Here are some themes to think and learn and pray about during Eastertide:

• You can meditate upon what the resurrection says about who Jesus Christ really is – the all-powerful and righteous Son of God - (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:25-28).

• You may try to find the meaning of the truth that “our death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54-56).

• You should ask what it means that the power and might of the risen Jesus is available to Christians today (Ephesians 1:15-23).

• You will have to think of how the resurrection of Jesus assures of our own resurrection (1 Corinthians 15).

Eastertide allows us to think deeply and to pray diligently about what the resurrection of Jesus means to me personally, to us as God’s people, and to the whole world.

Let’s celebrate and learn exuberantly!