The aftermath of Easter

In the Church of England and in the Anglican Church of Australia this Sunday, the Sunday after Easter is commonly referred to as Low Sunday mainly because it seems to be the Sunday that has amongst the lowest attendance for the year. Several reason have been advanced for this, the main theory seeming to be that, having attended so much church during the past week of Holy week with a Passover service, Maundy Thursday services, Good Friday and then the celebrations on the Saturday of Easter Eve with the Coming of the Light service and to top it all off Easter Day itself. It has been suggested that people are churched out.

But Easter is a momentous event that keeps on happening in the Church and today we come to realize the full significance of this event. In His resurrection the Risen Christ is on the move and He continues His movements breaking into wherever His disciples are gathered leading them prodding them out into the world to spread the Good News of His resurrection. In the Gospel of John we find that Jesus does not make just one appearance. He first appeared and spoke with Mary telling her to tell His disciples to gather in Galilee. Then He appears to those same frightened disciples locked in a room for fear of suffering the same fate as Jesus. Then appearing to the disciple Thomas when he doubted that the Lord had risen and showing to Thomas the wounds in His hands and side. But Thomas’s doubt is more than typical of people today. The claim of Easter that Jesus was raised from the dead is so outrageous so against our typical ways of thinking about things is so beyond the reach of our powers of comprehension that many people are like Thomas and want proof before they too will accept. We want to see to feel before we believe. People today long for some historical verifiable shred of documentation whereby we could prove both historically and empirically that this is where Jesus lay and the empty tomb is true that the resurrection is true. But we can’t prove that Easter is true by going backward we can only prove it by going forward because that is where the Risen Christ is He is on the move ahead of us not behind us.

Easter is the promise that God will never leave us to our own devices that God will never be defeated by us or by satan and Easter is also about the ability of Christ to defeat death in whatever form it faces us. Yet this our true hope that at the end of our lives that the same resurrected Christ who keeps coming back to us who keeps talking to us who makes Easter out of death that same Christ will continue to work with us will keep coming back to us even in our death. We shall discover on that day that our end is not defeat but rather communion with the one who has gone to such lengths to be with us. In short Easter keeps happening. The death of Christ isn’t the end it is just the beginning.

When the risen Christ shows up all over Jerusalem and Galilee who knows where He might show up next? Therein is our great challenge and hope.