Easter Day
Devotional
Streams of Living Water
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle B
Object:
Acts 10:34-43
... but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses.
-- Acts 10:40-41a
While Easter has not been as thoroughly secularized as society's handling of Christmas, there is still an attempt to revert back to the celebration of spring and the budding of new life all around us. This passage is a helpful reminder of what we, as Christians, are celebrating on Easter Sunday. There are several important points that are highlighted by this passage. First, it is God who is in charge of events. This is not an indestructible Jesus or even the immortal soul of Jesus, but a dead Jesus whom God raised. Jesus was not in control nor was it inevitable that he would live again apart from the will of God.
Second, having been raised from the dead, it is God who allows Jesus to appear to others. It is not an inevitable consequence that having been raised, people would be able to see Jesus. If we are raised from the dead, it does not necessarily follow that others can see us. We are dealing with a different dimension of reality here. The appearances of Jesus were not a natural consequence of his resurrection, but rather they were for a special purpose.
Third, Jesus does not appear to everyone but only to a select group. Jesus appeared to those God had selected for the specific purpose of providing a witness to God's sovereignty over life and death. It is God who is in charge of all that happens, and God anointed Jesus as judge of the living and the dead. Jesus' witness during his life had been to the power of God's grace to triumph over sin. By his resurrection, his message is verified. To believe in him is to receive forgiveness.
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through and give thanks to the Lord.
-- Psalm 118:19
Our journey of faith is a search for the gate of righteousness that will put us in a right relationship with God. The very path is counterintuitive. "The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone" (v. 22). We know that Christ leads us on a path that includes a journey of suffering. Yet, we are invited to rejoice. "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it" (v. 24). This is a retrospective affirmation for the psalmist. The psalmist has been through a difficult journey in which he nearly died (v. 18) and in which those who normally control one's destiny had given up on him (v. 22). But in ways that never could have been predicted, God has brought him through his trials and put him in a right relationship with himself.
Looking back, the psalmist now can say that this day was shaped by God and despite all its trials now can be celebrated. We are asked to come in the name of the Lord seeking a blessing from the house of the Lord because it is in doing so that we will find meaning in the suffering that has been part of our journey. Our righteousness or right relationship is opened to us when we can be centered in the light God has provided us and not be swayed by the shadows. The suffering of Jesus that was part of his journey was given new meaning because it was seen in the light of the journey that God had laid out for him. Easter casts a new light on our journey as well.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.
-- 1 Corinthians 15:9b-10a
The Easter celebration of Christ's resurrection was for Paul a release into the universe of the transforming love of God. He was living proof of the spread of that transforming love. God took an archenemy of the church, one that not only did not accept Jesus as the Christ but also actively sought to eliminate those who did. Without Paul having taken any initiative of asking for God's help and long before Paul had acknowledged Jesus as Lord and Savior, God reached into Paul's life and turned him around. Where Paul's life was headed for death and destruction, God did what Paul could not do for himself. He transformed him and raised him to a new life. As that transforming love spreads through the generations up until now, it offers radical freedom for the future.
No condition, attitude, or direction is so fixed in our life that God cannot fill us with a new hopeful possibility. There is a power greater than us that can help us when we cannot help ourselves. While this power may help us despite ourselves, as it did Paul, by the resurrection of Jesus we are invited to submit ourselves to that transforming love and greet our future with expectation.
Mark 16:1-8
So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
-- Mark 16:8
This is the strangest ending of any of the gospels. It is so strange that apparently later Christians could not accept it and decided to add a new ending that was more satisfying. If we did not have the other gospels, we would have none of the stories of Jesus' resurrection appearances. All we would have is the story of a young man dressed in a white robe telling the women not to be afraid and instructing them to tell the disciples to go to Galilee, and there they would see Jesus. It is not even an angel that tells the women about Jesus. The young man would appear to be the same young man who ran off naked when Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:51).
While we can profit from the witness of the other gospels, it is important for us to also hear a message from Mark. The good news of Christ is not a sure thing but depends upon the women overcoming their fear and the disciples' obedience. If the women let fear triumph over their amazement, the news of Jesus' resurrection may not be told. If the disciples do not go to Galilee, they will not encounter the risen Christ. On Easter Sunday, we hear the amazing story of Jesus' being raised from the dead. Then comes the decision following the worship service. Will we let it affect our lives, or will we let our natural fears overwhelm us? Are we willing to go where Christ directs us in our world so that we can meet the living Christ and not just repeat a story from history? The story of the tomb is important, but the risen Christ is available to us in Galilee if we are willing to make the journey.
... but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses.
-- Acts 10:40-41a
While Easter has not been as thoroughly secularized as society's handling of Christmas, there is still an attempt to revert back to the celebration of spring and the budding of new life all around us. This passage is a helpful reminder of what we, as Christians, are celebrating on Easter Sunday. There are several important points that are highlighted by this passage. First, it is God who is in charge of events. This is not an indestructible Jesus or even the immortal soul of Jesus, but a dead Jesus whom God raised. Jesus was not in control nor was it inevitable that he would live again apart from the will of God.
Second, having been raised from the dead, it is God who allows Jesus to appear to others. It is not an inevitable consequence that having been raised, people would be able to see Jesus. If we are raised from the dead, it does not necessarily follow that others can see us. We are dealing with a different dimension of reality here. The appearances of Jesus were not a natural consequence of his resurrection, but rather they were for a special purpose.
Third, Jesus does not appear to everyone but only to a select group. Jesus appeared to those God had selected for the specific purpose of providing a witness to God's sovereignty over life and death. It is God who is in charge of all that happens, and God anointed Jesus as judge of the living and the dead. Jesus' witness during his life had been to the power of God's grace to triumph over sin. By his resurrection, his message is verified. To believe in him is to receive forgiveness.
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through and give thanks to the Lord.
-- Psalm 118:19
Our journey of faith is a search for the gate of righteousness that will put us in a right relationship with God. The very path is counterintuitive. "The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone" (v. 22). We know that Christ leads us on a path that includes a journey of suffering. Yet, we are invited to rejoice. "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it" (v. 24). This is a retrospective affirmation for the psalmist. The psalmist has been through a difficult journey in which he nearly died (v. 18) and in which those who normally control one's destiny had given up on him (v. 22). But in ways that never could have been predicted, God has brought him through his trials and put him in a right relationship with himself.
Looking back, the psalmist now can say that this day was shaped by God and despite all its trials now can be celebrated. We are asked to come in the name of the Lord seeking a blessing from the house of the Lord because it is in doing so that we will find meaning in the suffering that has been part of our journey. Our righteousness or right relationship is opened to us when we can be centered in the light God has provided us and not be swayed by the shadows. The suffering of Jesus that was part of his journey was given new meaning because it was seen in the light of the journey that God had laid out for him. Easter casts a new light on our journey as well.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.
-- 1 Corinthians 15:9b-10a
The Easter celebration of Christ's resurrection was for Paul a release into the universe of the transforming love of God. He was living proof of the spread of that transforming love. God took an archenemy of the church, one that not only did not accept Jesus as the Christ but also actively sought to eliminate those who did. Without Paul having taken any initiative of asking for God's help and long before Paul had acknowledged Jesus as Lord and Savior, God reached into Paul's life and turned him around. Where Paul's life was headed for death and destruction, God did what Paul could not do for himself. He transformed him and raised him to a new life. As that transforming love spreads through the generations up until now, it offers radical freedom for the future.
No condition, attitude, or direction is so fixed in our life that God cannot fill us with a new hopeful possibility. There is a power greater than us that can help us when we cannot help ourselves. While this power may help us despite ourselves, as it did Paul, by the resurrection of Jesus we are invited to submit ourselves to that transforming love and greet our future with expectation.
Mark 16:1-8
So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
-- Mark 16:8
This is the strangest ending of any of the gospels. It is so strange that apparently later Christians could not accept it and decided to add a new ending that was more satisfying. If we did not have the other gospels, we would have none of the stories of Jesus' resurrection appearances. All we would have is the story of a young man dressed in a white robe telling the women not to be afraid and instructing them to tell the disciples to go to Galilee, and there they would see Jesus. It is not even an angel that tells the women about Jesus. The young man would appear to be the same young man who ran off naked when Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:51).
While we can profit from the witness of the other gospels, it is important for us to also hear a message from Mark. The good news of Christ is not a sure thing but depends upon the women overcoming their fear and the disciples' obedience. If the women let fear triumph over their amazement, the news of Jesus' resurrection may not be told. If the disciples do not go to Galilee, they will not encounter the risen Christ. On Easter Sunday, we hear the amazing story of Jesus' being raised from the dead. Then comes the decision following the worship service. Will we let it affect our lives, or will we let our natural fears overwhelm us? Are we willing to go where Christ directs us in our world so that we can meet the living Christ and not just repeat a story from history? The story of the tomb is important, but the risen Christ is available to us in Galilee if we are willing to make the journey.
