Easter Sunday
Acts 10:34,37-43
Col 3:1-4
Jn 20:1-9
Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven…
HE IS RISEN.
We have been born to RISE with Him -– it is a choice we all have to make for ourselves; no one can make it for us, and we can’t make it for anyone else. A choice every human, whether they believe in Jesus — Jesus as the Lord and Saviour, or even God — will make. The most important choice anyone will ever make is the choice that everyone will make.
A choice that, if made to believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, should be evident in the way that we walk, the way that we talk, the way that we are. Everything.
Believing in what today is all about -– genuinely believing and trusting — should look different on us than on those who are merely celebrating the Easter Bunny; or not celebrating today at all.
I recently purchased a new bible, the Catholic/Ecumenical Edition of THE MESSAGE, The Bible in Contemporary Language, by Eugene H Peterson and I want to share the contemporary words of Colossians 3:1-4:
So, if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ -– that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life – even though invisible to spectators – is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too – the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
Those few verses in the language of today spoke to me in a deeper way — “If you’re serious…”. And I especially was jarred by the last sentence, ‘Meanwhile be content with obscurity, like Christ.”
As a cradle Catholic, I see Christ as anything but obscure -– yet 2000 years ago, He truly was obscure; and now, 2000 years later, Christ is still obscure — perhaps even more so now than 100 years ago. As I contemplated this line, it came to me that I see Christ doing ‘big things’, and the really ‘great Christians’ doing ‘big things’. But through contemplation, I realized that walking with Christ usually looks normal, common, even mundane. So ordinary in fact, that most of those who are walking like Christ are quickly forgotten and even easily not noticed at all. Yet, the after-effect of what we do/the manner in which we do things throughout the day in following Christ, picking up our cross, will be noticed and remembered in individual lives because we allow Christ to live and work through us in all manner of things. The world will be changed – Easter will come alive when we are not just willing, but wanting to do all the small, dull, common things in a manner worthy of Christ. As Oswald Chambers said (and I‘ve shared before), “Drudgery is the touchstone of character. The great hindrance in spiritual life is that we will look for BIG things to do. ‘Jesus took a towel…’ and began to wash the disciples feet.”
Pope St. John Paul II said, “We are an Easter people and Hallelujah is our song!”
Jesus walked on the dust and dirt of Israel for three decades. May those be the feet we follow, and may those be the feet -– disguised in people we see every day -– we wash, as we sing ‘Hallelujah, He is Risen!’
(Today’s OXYGEN by Gina Ulicny)
Prayer: Lord, may this Easter change me. May this Easter be a true turning point in my life.
Thanksgiving: Thank You, Lord, for Jesus. Amen! Amen!
OXYGEN 
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