Life After Easter

On Easter Sunday, our whole attention needs to be fixed on the most remarkable event in human history: one who died now lives! The Gospel accounts reveal how Jesus’ own followers could not comprehend this truth until they saw Jesus alive. Thomas stubbornly resisted believing all the reports until he could put his fingers into the nail holes and his hand into Jesus’ wounded side to verify for himself that Jesus truly was alive.
Jesus gave them evidence that His body was truly alive by allowing them to touch Him, by eating food with the disciples and by walking with them and instructing them in God’s Word. For our comfort, Jesus added, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29b). Over the past 2,000 years, people all over the world have heard the Easter message, “He is not here, but is risen!” (Luke 24:6) and believed that Jesus lives. Because Jesus lives, they know that Jesus has paid the terrible punishment of eternal death for the sins of the whole world since “the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Because Jesus lives, they know that Jesus Christ “…has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10b). Because Jesus lives, they know that they “shall not come into judgment, but [have] passed from death into life” (John 5:24). Because Jesus lives, they know that Jesus came “to redeem those who were under the law, that [they] might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:5). Because Jesus lives, they know that Jesus “…will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3).
Christ’s resurrection also confronts us with another kind of life. St. Paul wrote: “Even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, [God] made us live together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:5, 10). The historic Epistle for Easter Sunday instructs believers, “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
The point of these passages is made in the Collect for the First Sunday after Easter, “…we who have celebrated the solemnities of the Lord’s resurrection, may, by the help of Your grace, bring forth the fruits thereof in our life and conduct” (Collect for Easter 2, ELH, pg. 155). As baptism connects us with Christ’s resurrection, we should live for Jesus, who gave His life for us. This new life is full of joy and confidence as we realize the extent of Jesus’ salvation. It is full of trust that God’s Word is true and God will keep His promises. The Christian life casts off the works of darkness and walks in the light of God’s Word to know what is true and right. Christians live with the expectation that Jesus will hear their prayers, help them in every need, preserve His Church in this world, and take His children to heaven.
Jesus pictures our Easter life as being connected with Him: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Each time we hear the Gospel, remind ourselves of our baptism, and receive the Lord’s Supper, we are connecting ourselves to the resurrected Jesus. He moves us to bear the fruits of confessing and worshiping Him, of praying and trusting Him, and of “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
We cannot see the proofs of Christ’s resurrection as Thomas and the other apostles did. Trusting in the proofs they gave, we can show proof that we believe in the risen Christ in the way we love Jesus by serving Him.
Theodore Gullixson is pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Madison, Wisconsin.