Easter Everyday
Are you still celebrating Easter?
This past Sunday thousands of sanctuaries sat empty, but the celebration of Easter continued. Rightfully so because Jesus conquered death and the grave when he arose on the third day. Nothing, virus or otherwise, has changed that and nothing else compares. Without doubt, however, this will certainly be an Easter we will all remember.
However, if we allow Easter to remain confined to only a day on the calendar (even the church’s calendar) and celebrated equally as such the full impact of the resurrection has gone unrecognized. Easter must cause us to daily contemplate and celebrate the identity and work of Jesus, the resurrected Christ, in our lives.
LORD OVER ALL
Jesus stepping out of the tomb on the first Easter Sunday emphatically declares he is Lord over all. In the book of the Revelation, John begins by describing the encounter he had with the resurrected Christ on the Isle of Patmos. At the sight of Jesus, John records he fell down at Jesus’ feet as though he were dead. Jesus then speaks to him, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, the living one. I died and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Rev 1:17 ESV). Upon his resurrection Jesus now holds authority, the keys, over Death and Hades. He rules over death and the grave because he has conquered them in his resurrection.
The apostle Paul in Philippians 2 says that subsequent to his death on the cross, “God has highly exalted [Jesus] and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (vv. 8-9 ESV). The exaltation of Christ begins with his resurrection from the dead. God the Father was satisfied with the sacrifice and obedience Jesus gave in humbling himself to the death of the cross and evidenced this in raising him from the dead and crowning him as Lord over all.
Jesus reigned on Easter, but his reign continues today and will go forward perpetually into eternity. Let us therefore, joyfully acknowledge, yield to, and celebrate his Lordship everyday in our lives as his followers while eagerly looking forward to experiencing it fully in eternity. Proclaim with the psalmist each day, “The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation.” (Ps 18:46 ESV).
ALL THINGS NEW
The resurrection of Jesus is the inauguration of the new creation. This implies that more is to come while still acknowledging his initial impact; “He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent” (Col 1:18 ESV). The full consummation will be recognized in the new heavens and new earth (Rev 21:5). However, Jesus is working now in preparing for that occasion; primarily doing so in the lives of his followers.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians that in Christ Jesus they were “new creations” with the old passing away and the new coming about (2 Cor. 5:17 ESV). This is only in effect because Christ has conquered death and ushered in the beginnings of the new creation in the lives of his followers. Because Jesus died and now lives, we who were dead can now have new life and become new creations in Christ. “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4). As Christians, Easter effects the life we live each day.
352 OPPORTUNITIES
The 2021 calendar places Easter falling on Sunday, April 4. While we look forward to hopefully a more customary time of gathering and worship on Easter that Sunday, we must not wait to celebrate until then. Jesus is alive today! Therefore, each day (352 until the next Easter Sunday) brings opportunities to live out the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life and marvel at the new creation you are becoming in him by his grace (1 Cor 15:10).
Easter effects each day. Don’t let these days pass without continuing to celebrate Easter!