So Easter is Over, Now What?
Navigating the Post-Resurrection Celebration
The most significant event in human history, the Resurrection of our Lord, is the largest annual event in all of Christianity. Each Spring billions of faithful Christians, cultural Christians and seekers fill churches during Holy Week and especially on Easter Sunday.
So what are we to do after Easter is over? For many pastors building up to Easter is such a work of love, attention, prayer and preparation. We put so much into our services believing for record attendance, new confessions of faith, baptisms and changed lives. The week after can feel like a let down from either the pure adrenaline and spiritual momentum now fading or a disappointment in results after such major effort.
Pastor, believer, disciple of Jesus, I bid you, don’t lose the joy of Easter. JESUS IS ALIVE! Nothing else matters. If the resurrection is true (and it is!) than literally nothing else matters. Low attendance the next week compared to Easter? So, what?! Jesus came out of the grave! You only had half the conversions as last year? Sin, death, hell and the devil have been defeated and rendered powerless by the waking of the God-Man from His Sabbath rest in the tomb! Church was so exciting last week and people don’t carry that much enthusiasm usually on other weeks? Well, He is still alive and the sting of death has been broken!
So again, what do we do after Easter? We go about life like the apostles of Jesus day after day, week after week and year after year. “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all (Acts 4:33 NKJV).” Jesus is risen from the dead and we share this truth, this hope, this message everywhere we can. I’m convinced more than ever that the hope of the gospel alone has the power to heal the ache and reverse the evil of our present age. Oh how I want to make the good news of our resurrected Lord known to all!
The hope for every human heart is that Jesus is alive! The hope for our families, for cities and nations is that Jesus is alive! The resurrection of the King of Glory means that death is overthrown and immortality is not a pursuit of vanity but a gift from God. He became as we are so that we could become as He is. The immortal God became a mortal Man, died in our place and rose from the dead so that we mortal men could become immortal like God. He is always uncreated and we are created. We never become His essence but He took on our nature so that we could live forever like Him. As He overthrew the power of the grave, so do we through faith in His name.
Is your life facing disappointment this week? Are you troubled by war, corruption and evil in the world? Have you received a bad report? Do you want to make a lasting difference? Let the resurrection not just be an annual celebration but a daily reality that a great resurrection and glory awaits all who believe in the Resurrected One! There is no greater meaning and purpose in life than living in resurrection power and making this message known that the Son of God who died for us on the cross is risen and reigning!