Motivation Monday – Easter is Over but The Tomb is Still Open
“Our plans may die, our strategies may have to be redirected, our losses may be incalculable, but we are alive in all the ways that matter.”
Easter is over. We are experiencing the recrimination of putting mindless handfuls of mini eggs in our mouths as a consolation prize for not being able to be fully gathered with our family and friends and in our churches. The head of the chocolate bunny sits in the trash, and easter baskets have been tucked away in the basement waiting for next year.
And Jesus has been tucked safely back in the tomb.
Wait! Is that true?
Today, Monday, is the morning after. Coming off the emotionally charged pinnacle of our liturgical year, we are tired, weary, maybe doubtful and despairing once again. Less than twenty-four hours ago, we were modern day Mary’s, running and telling the world that Christ Is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! And overnight, we have transformed our identities into Thomas’s, asking for more proof that Jesus is real enough to carry us through our dread that ‘normal’ may be lost to us forever.
Our soul, which had soared upward into the heavens on the wings of the truth of the resurrection, has crashed back to earth, only to find the cares of the day haven’t gone away. Our minds exchange meditations on the glories of Christ for a list of errands and groceries, wondering if we will ever find our way out of lockdowns.
Today, Monday, it’s like the empty tomb was never real. It’s like we were on a moving treadmill and passed by it to have a look but are now on to the next thing, because the doubts of our present reality overshadow the unimaginable, death-defeating Resurrection of the Jesus we follow. When we look back at the tomb, it’s like the stone has covered the opening and we go back to our old lives, going about business as though Christ was lying cold, still and dead inside the sepulchre.
We treat Christ as though his resurrection from the dead is the climax of an Easter play. When the music stops and the virtual church service ends, we applaud His performance and get up from the couch, remembering that we can catch the same show again next year.
God knew how difficult it would be for our finite minds to apprehend the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. He even sent an angel to the tomb to redirect the women’s thoughts from doubt and pain to faith and joy. “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” (Luke 24:5-6)
Now the Holy Spirit himself speaks to us the same message, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” And we find that the answer is that Christ has not only ascended to the right hand of the Father, He is alive in us! And if He lives in us, we are alive as we could ever hope to be! We can move forward in resurrection life, making a decision to behave like we believe that we are seated with Christ and that death will not hold us in any grave of despair, defeat, or dread, as it could not hold Christ in its grip.
Our plans may die, our strategies may have to be redirected, our losses may be incalculable, but we are alive in all the ways that matter.
1 Corinthians 15:52 (AMP): “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at [the sound of] the last trumpet call. For a trumpet will sound, and the dead [who believed in Christ] will be raised imperishable, and we will be [completely] changed [wondrously transformed].”
On the day after Easter, and each day after that, the stone remains rolled away from the entrance of Christ’s tomb and we are strengthened by the truth that Jesus is alive! We can shift our focus from all that we have lost and all that is dying in our lives and embrace the divine work of proclaiming the eternal truth to a dying world that Christ is alive.
Even on the Monday after Easter, Christ’s death and resurrection continues to reveal the lens through which we must view all of reality, our destiny as human beings. We must keep the message of Easter front and center in our lives even as we are brought back down to the Monday reality. The truth of the resurrected Jesus is the source of power to spur us on to new hopes, and dreams. Such power does not last one day or fifty days. It cannot be boxed up and shut away for another year.
The tomb is still open. And so are the possibilities of living with freedom and anticipation that there is a new life pulsing in our veins, and our own Resurrection Sunday coming.
I believe in you.
Cathie