When was the last time you really blew it? I mean, really, really blew it? Like, “This-is-the-end-I’ll-never-recover-my-life-is-over, blew it?”
Are you there now? Full of despair like the man in this painting?
[photo by MatoWinyan via Photobucket]
If so, please believe this: Goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. (Psalm 23)
Here’s how I know this is true…
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By now you’ve heard of the bombings at the finish line of yesterday’s Boston Marathon. Yesterday, it was one of the most tweeted trends, and today it will be the top news item.
When I heard about it, I alerted my running partners via text:
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Good Friday has come and gone. Easter has come and gone.
Now what?
Well, that depends on your view of Easter. If you view Easter as a Christian metaphor about newness of life and hope for tomorrow, then you can pretty much go on as you were, trying to be a good person (or not) with your vague hopes for tomorrow.
[Christ's Appearance to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection, by Alexander Ivanov. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.]
But if you believe that Jesus was literally, physically, permanently raised from death like Dawn and me then the resurrection can and should have huge life-changing implications for your tomorrow. And by life-changing, I mean both how God changes your life, and how you seek to change.
Here’s eight “Now what?” implications every new believer in Jesus’ resurrection should think about. This isn’t a to-do list, it’s a to-think-study-pray-about-what-it-all-means list. This will take a lifetime, so I recommend you get a Bible, find a church, and get started.
The traditional Christian greeting of this day, Easter Sunday is, He is risen! It’s a statement of joy and hope that means different things to different people.
[The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, by Caravaggio, 1601. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia]
Please allow me tell you what Dawn and I mean when we say it…
Yes, Dawn and I are two of those crazy, Jesus freaks who really believe in the literal, physical, permanent resurrection of Jesus and His ascension to the right hand of the Father. There He reigns literally and physically as Christ and Lord over all the universe and all the affairs of men.
Judas took the money.
The Jews took Barabbas.
The disciples took to hiding.
And Simon Peter?
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["The Denial of Saint Peter," by Caravaggio, A.D. 1610, courtesy of Wikipedia.org.]
He took to lying and swearing, calling God’s curse upon himself, “I’ll be damned if I know him.”
This Sunday, March 24th, is Palm Sunday in the Christian tradition. On this day we celebrate the day that Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem to shouts of, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
[photo by Wallula Junction on Flickr]
It’s called Palm Sunday because the crowds cut palm branches to lay in the path of Jesus as a sign of joyous welcome. You can read two of the historical records in Matthew 21:6-11 and John 12:12-15.
Did you share in Christ’s body and blood Sunday? I did, and I confess, it was a lack luster experience.
["The Last Supper" by Leonardo Da Vinci, photo courtesy of Wikipedia]
Barely a whisper of faith and worship wafted through my mind. The temperature of my heart at that moment seemed set to lukewarm, which was ironic since the sermon was from Revelation 2:14-22 where John records Jesus’ message to the lukewarm Laodician church. To adapt John Wesley’s famous phrase, my heart was not “strangely warmed.”
If you’re average like me, you’ve experienced this, too.
