The Aftermath of Easter

This week my timeline has been filled with pastors and ministers who are T-I-R-E-D. Many have put together multiple services, led various Holy Week services, hosted a myriad of Easter events from prayer meetings to Easter Egg hunts, and welcomed people back to in-person services with a host of new ways of doing things safely. Too often, I fear, for those of us in ministry and even for those of us to attend services throughout the week, the aftermath of Easter is… weariness.

But, a brief look at Scripture shows us quite a different aftermath to the actual event. If you’ve been around church circles for any length of time, it is likely you have heard a number of the post-Resurrection narratives.

• The story of Mary at the tomb hearing her name spoken by Jesus and running to tell the disciples.
• The account of the two people walking to Emmaus that were joined by Jesus and didn’t recognize Him until he joined them for a meal and broke the bread, something they had apparently seen Jesus do before and they ran all the way back to Jerusalem to tell the other followers that they had seen the risen Christ.
• How Jesus then appeared to all the disciples except Thomas and then came back later so that Thomas could see Him, touch Him, and talk to Him.
• The story of Peter who Jesus cooked breakfast for and commissioned to “feed My sheep.” 

There was an intensity. There was a virtual blizzard of events. Jesus was alive.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that not only did he appear to all of these people, he showed up in a gathering of five hundred. Five hundred firsthand encounters with the risen Christ. 500 firsthand experiences. No names. No stories. Just a brief mention of these 500. What ever happened to their stories?

I mean, technically, we don’t know. But we do know some things. We know that those who experienced firsthand encounters with Jesus felt compelled to share about them; it made their joy complete. We know that those who experienced Jesus didn’t hide their testimony but they shared it openly as we can see all through the book of Acts and the historical writings of many who documented the followers of the Way.

Here’s what I think happened. These people who had experienced the risen Christ COULDN’T CONTAIN their joy. They had to share. To make their joy complete as John says in I John 1:4, they had to tell other people. And in turn those people told other people and those people told other people. 

Friends, our faith is so unique and dynamic. We serve a personal God who interacts with us throughout our lives. He speaks to us through Scripture and song. He reveals himself in creation and one another. For some of us, we hear His whisper in our heart. For others, we experience healing, physical and emotional.

We have firsthand experience of Jesus. We have Easter!

We also hear the testimony of others. We read firsthand accounts. We listen to testimonies and stories of others. We share the experiences of people who have experienced Jesus in their lives.

We get both. We need both.

You see, our joy is made complete, our faith is made whole, when we both experience the risen Christ in our own lives and in the community of believers.

A faith built solely on the experience of others will leave us hopeless.  A faith built solely on our own experience will leave us homeless. 

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I believe this is one of the reasons we are seeing a decline in rising generations in the church today. Our segregation of ages has not created the space for firsthand experiences to be shared from one generation to another. Our generational gap doesn’t foster a space for the sharing of personal testimonies and experiences to be passed on through story and song. We are left with generations that are hopeless and homeless.

The rapid spread of Christianity isn’t just because 500+ people had a firsthand experience with Jesus. As they told their story and others heard it and chose to come to faith in Jesus, they had their own firsthand experience. The Holy Spirit was given to them. They came to a place where they too experienced resurrection in their own hearts and minds. And then they shared their story and so on and so on.  Disciples were made. This is discipleship.

I need your testimonies of God’s hand of love and redemption and resurrection in your life. And you need mine. And future generations need ours. Because the firsthand accounts that become secondhand accounts will lead to more firsthand accounts. It is also why we need each other.

Author Wendell Berry once said, “Put your faith in two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years…Laugh. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts….Practice resurrection.”  In other words, plant your seeds of faith. Listen to the testimomies, firsthand and secondhand, make your joy complete. Practice rising to new life. Speak. Share. Sow. Practice resurrection everyday.

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