What Easter Changes
Around here the day after Easter is a holiday of sorts. Some businesses were closed as well as the local school. As with many holidays I am not sure how long people took to savor the meaning of Easter, I enjoyed the afternoon with my family in warm weather and thought, at least for a few minutes, about the promise of God’s kingdom.
We live in an age when we must be reminded that heaven is for real, even drawing from the dreams of toddlers. I suppose the default position for our forgetfulness, even among Christians, is that we secretly have our doubts about the whole heaven thing. I once spoke with someone who adamantly repeated that when she dies, she dies, and whatever happens, happens. Another lady once joked with me that when she dies she will head to the same place everybody else does. As she paused I looked up to see her pointing to the cemetery down the road from her house. When I hear comments like those, after smiling and nodding, I can’t help but also jump on the chance to remind those ladies and myself of what God has revealed to us about death, life after death, and even life after life after death—or resurrection. Most definitely something will happen, and it is something wonderful for those who trust in Christ. We will wait in heaven with others for Jesus to return to the earth to set up his kingdom in full. At that time the dead in him will rise and whoever happens to be living and trusting in him will also be changed to the same kind of human life that Jesus has now. An embodied life without death. An embodied life without disease. An embodied life without the corrosive decay of sin. An embodied life that will spend forever right here on a renewed earth.
The Bible calls this life “eternal life.” But the way Christians ignore it or treat it as ho-hum you’d think it was a boring proposition for everyone involved. But that is far from the truth. God will renew this earth, and his kingdom will be a feast for all our bodily senses. The economy of humans will be just. Worship and pleasure will meet. Whatever sublime experience you have had on this earth, multiply it exponentially, and then you will start to get an idea of what eternal life will be like.
Easter is a timely reminder of such truths because it emphasizes the meaning behind our weekly gatherings for worship every Sunday morning alongside the community of the redeemed in Christ. His resurrection guarantees our resurrections. His new life is the basis for our new lives. His mission has become our mission and his peace, our peace.
In other words, Easter changes everything, but even in communities that recognize such a thing as Easter Monday it appears that Easter does not change much at all. Maybe we still doubt. Maybe we still need to be convinced it is for real. Or maybe we just have not taken the time to think about it enough. If it is the latter, let worship whet your appetite. Sing like the local high school basketball team just won state. Read and hear God’s Word with the same gusto a newborn infant finds satisfaction at her mother’s breast. Eat and drink as if God is offering you a sampling at the feast waiting for us in his kingdom, full of the finest delicacies from around the world, including your favorite hot dish (or if you grew up where I did your favorite barbecue joint). Do not let your appetite end at worship. Rather, let worship open your eyes for the joys of everyday life both with your physical senses, the beauty of nature, and the love shared with others.
To be sure, sin has so marred this world and us in it that there is much that is not right today. But Easter tells us that God has already started to set things aright, and he will finish the job soon enough in his own time. Until then, let us be people who live as if Easter has changed everything, because it has.
We live in an age when we must be reminded that heaven is for real, even drawing from the dreams of toddlers. I suppose the default position for our forgetfulness, even among Christians, is that we secretly have our doubts about the whole heaven thing. I once spoke with someone who adamantly repeated that when she dies, she dies, and whatever happens, happens. Another lady once joked with me that when she dies she will head to the same place everybody else does. As she paused I looked up to see her pointing to the cemetery down the road from her house. When I hear comments like those, after smiling and nodding, I can’t help but also jump on the chance to remind those ladies and myself of what God has revealed to us about death, life after death, and even life after life after death—or resurrection. Most definitely something will happen, and it is something wonderful for those who trust in Christ. We will wait in heaven with others for Jesus to return to the earth to set up his kingdom in full. At that time the dead in him will rise and whoever happens to be living and trusting in him will also be changed to the same kind of human life that Jesus has now. An embodied life without death. An embodied life without disease. An embodied life without the corrosive decay of sin. An embodied life that will spend forever right here on a renewed earth.
The Bible calls this life “eternal life.” But the way Christians ignore it or treat it as ho-hum you’d think it was a boring proposition for everyone involved. But that is far from the truth. God will renew this earth, and his kingdom will be a feast for all our bodily senses. The economy of humans will be just. Worship and pleasure will meet. Whatever sublime experience you have had on this earth, multiply it exponentially, and then you will start to get an idea of what eternal life will be like.
Easter is a timely reminder of such truths because it emphasizes the meaning behind our weekly gatherings for worship every Sunday morning alongside the community of the redeemed in Christ. His resurrection guarantees our resurrections. His new life is the basis for our new lives. His mission has become our mission and his peace, our peace.
In other words, Easter changes everything, but even in communities that recognize such a thing as Easter Monday it appears that Easter does not change much at all. Maybe we still doubt. Maybe we still need to be convinced it is for real. Or maybe we just have not taken the time to think about it enough. If it is the latter, let worship whet your appetite. Sing like the local high school basketball team just won state. Read and hear God’s Word with the same gusto a newborn infant finds satisfaction at her mother’s breast. Eat and drink as if God is offering you a sampling at the feast waiting for us in his kingdom, full of the finest delicacies from around the world, including your favorite hot dish (or if you grew up where I did your favorite barbecue joint). Do not let your appetite end at worship. Rather, let worship open your eyes for the joys of everyday life both with your physical senses, the beauty of nature, and the love shared with others.
To be sure, sin has so marred this world and us in it that there is much that is not right today. But Easter tells us that God has already started to set things aright, and he will finish the job soon enough in his own time. Until then, let us be people who live as if Easter has changed everything, because it has.
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