The Day After… Devotion 308

We celebrate Resurrection. We give thanks for the sacrifice. We hear how we can live free. We begin to take in the love which has been poured out for us. Yet the Monday after Easter can look very similar to the Monday before Easter. We too easily fall back into our routines, leaving no trace of Easter in our lives. Other than a hidden missed egg which may appear a few days or weeks from now, it will seem as though Easter has come and gone. If we fully embrace all of Easter, this cannot be the case. It cannot be that we go about our lives as if Resurrection never happened. We must reflect the love which has been so generously given to us.

I understand how this can be a challenge. Everything about our Easter Monday can seem mundane. We often do the same job and are in the same mindset. But the day after the Resurrection was anything but mundane for the women, for the disciples, and for those who had the joy of encountering Jesus again, for the first time. Meals were enjoyed, eyes were opened, hearts were changed and nothing was the same – at least not for his followers. They certainly lived in the same world and wandered the same community. But they had been changed. They had been a part of something miraculous, earth-shattering even. Everything around them may have been familiar, but they were anything but the same. They were being made new. Their entire lives were being transformed. Jesus is alive – and that means something.

I can’t help but wonder if our lives should reflect a change as well. Shouldn’t we live more like Christ? The ultimate example of loving God and loving others is right before us. How are we begin made new? How are we being transformed? Resurrection does that.

Focus Scripture:

John 20:19-20

¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.