Our Living Hope
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. - 1 Peter 1:3-5
Easter has quickly come and gone. For me, it seems to have sped by in a blur. The weather that we have had has not given us any real indication that spring is on the way. Regardless of how it felt or the mood that the cool weather gave us, Easter came. We celebrated and rejoiced in Christ's resurrection! It is so important that we don't let this day go by as just any other holiday because it is so much more. As Christians, we are a resurrection people. This day that was the most pivotal moment in human history is what shapes us and makes us who we are in Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, I don't think we are wired to dwell on something like Easter. We have big events and then we move on and prepare for the next big event. I don't know if this is because we live in such a busy and mobile society or if this has always been the way holidays were approached. I was listening to the podcast of a Reformed apologist recently. He was speaking about the celebration of Passover and made a comment about American's not really grasping the idea of a multi-day celebration. This caused me to pause and think about how true this was. In my early twenties when I was a manager at Toys R Us I was always surprised at how quickly holiday moods changed. On Christmas Eve, we couldn't go home until we had set up the queue lines that would corral the hordes of people making returns in about 36 hours. The first year I was a part of this, I was surprised by the nearly instantaneous change of mood. The canned music coming through the intercom system was still telling me it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas and that somehow chestnuts roasting on an open fire was supposed to be appealing. What had changed was the attitudes. It wasn't just that everything related to Christmas was being discounted so that we didn't have to count it in two weeks when we did inventory. The attitudes changed.
It was the same way with any holiday. The day after Easter, the candy was priced down and we were setting up to feature the next big thing. After Halloween the costumes were marked down. It seems as though because we are so busy marketing the next big thing that we are wired to move on and never really enjoy where we are. My guess is that most of us can relate to this. We are so busy that we have to move on to the next thing immediately or we will be left behind.
As Christians, we cannot do that with Resurrection Sunday. What we celebrate each year is the story of Christ's death and resurrection for us. This is what gives us hope. We cannot move on from it because it is the gospel. It is the event that shows us that Jesus is so much more than a good teacher. Thousands upon thousands were crucified at the hands of the Romans but only one conquered death, hell, and the devil by rising from the dead. This not just the story of Jesus it is also our story. Without the resurrection we have no hope. Jesus would just be another itinerant preacher who had roamed the remote parts of Palestine. His death would have been nothing more than an unjust execution of an innocent man. It is because of the resurrection that we have a living hope. The death of Jesus has meaning because he was victorious over it. That is why we must not move past Easter.
Each week when we gather for Lord's Day worship, we are remembering the story. Our gathering with our fellow believers is a reminder that because our Lord rose on the first day of the week, we will gather and remember what he has done for us. This is so important because we will naturally rush on to the next thing after Easter. Our lives are busy and there are things we have to do. By gathering each Lord's Day and remembering his resurrection we are thrust back into the story to be reminded of this good news of salvation that we have in Christ. God has shown us mercy. We have been born again. It is our living hope. Kept for you by the very power of God.
