For me the most radical demand of Christian faith
lies in summoning the courage to say yes
to the present risenness of Jesus Christ.1
Easter morning service in our church was magnificent, rousing triumphant music, scripture readings, an insightful, powerful sermon, culminating in a festive celebratory Eucharist. Jesus Christ is risen indeed! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
My wife and I left church following the service, our hearts overflowing with gratitude and joy. The sun was shining, flowers and trees were in the peak of their springtime bloom, and after a leisurely lunch we took a long and peaceful walk through the woods. Everything was wonderful – as it should be. This was Easter Sunday and even nature radiated with the glory of our risen Lord. All of the troubles and cares of the past week paled into insignificance as I felt buoyed by the realization of Jesus’ triumph over evil and death this Easter Sunday morning.
By late afternoon the warm glow of joy and celebration was becoming a memory as I thought about my schedule for the coming week – unresolved issues to be dealt with, challenges to be confronted, difficult decisions to be made, and I hadn’t even begun to think about the people problems! It’s Sunday now but Monday’s coming I thought to myself wryly. Isn’t this the true and painful reality of being human – bad stuff happens to us and around us; we are not immune and as much as we celebrate Easter we will still have to contend with temptation, disease, conflict, injustice, crime, and disappointment. And it may be that even as we celebrate heaven’s victory touching earth we will be interrupted, broken by earthbound concerns that come in to spoil the joy.
The mystery of Jesus’ triumph over evil and death is that, while it was a cosmic victory for all times and places, it is a victory yet to be fully realized in our daily lives. For even as we celebrate Jesus’ triumph over evil and injustice we continue to struggle against evil and to contend for justice in our time. I think of Jesus’ friend Lazarus, who was miraculously raised from the dead, and yet he eventually had to face death all over again. Like every blind beggar, suffering leper, and crippled person whose disease Jesus vanquished, they all eventually died. After Jesus’ resurrection victory, His followers suffered increasing marginalization and persecution – Stephen was stoned to death, Saul hunted down the followers of Jesus in order to stamp out their belief, and in the ensuing years many were martyred for their belief in Jesus and His resurrection.
The point is not that Jesus’ victory wasn’t real, or that it was meaningless, or only spiritual. It is a victory that has continued to reverberate through human history as a turning point. While the reality of Monday inevitably follows Sunday, it is the Easter Sunday triumph of Jesus’ resurrection that imbues His followers with hope. We are no longer consigned to see the conflicts, crises, and calamities that overtake us through pre-resurrection eyes. The resurrection perspective changes everything; defilement, destruction and death are not the final words or realities that will touch our lives.
It is true that while it may be Sunday now, and we know that Monday with all the troubles of the week are coming, Monday and all the other days of the week come after Sunday – and that makes all the difference. Sunday – Easter – the Resurrection Day of Jesus puts the rest of our week and of our days into perspective.
Monday’s coming – Jesus Christ is Risen Indeed! Hallelujah – Hallelujah!
…left to ourselves we lapse into a kind of collusion with entrophy,
acquiescing in the general belief that things may be getting worse
but that there’s nothing much we can do about them.
And we are wrong.
Our task in the present…
is to live as resurrection people in between Easter and the final day,
with our Christian life, corporate and individual,
in both worship and mission,
as a sign of the first and a foretaste of the second.2
2 N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (2008, Harper One)
Ronald W. Nikkel is the president and CEO of Prison Fellowship International (PFI). For more information, visit the PFI web site.