Easter lasts more than a day!

We celebrated Easter on Easter Sunday on 24 April.
But all Christian worship testifies to the resurrection of Christ. Jesus rose on the first day of the week. And we worship on the first day of every week, Sundays, to say to the world that we serve a risen Saviour. Sunday worship speaks on every Sunday of the importance of the resurrection to every Christian and all of humanity.

But because the resurrection of Jesus is the pinnacle of our faith, we also have 50 days, until Ascension Day and Pentecost Sunday that we call Eastertide – a Season of focused learning about the impact on our lives when we say that we serve a risen Saviour. Not to mention the eternal impact!

Fifty days of Easter? What would we do for 50 days? Surely we so not suggest fifty consecutive Easter egg hunts, or fifty “leg of lamb dinners” in a row. And celebrating Eastertide is not duplicating Easter Sunday fifty times over in Church. No, it’s taking time to reflect upon and delight in the truth of serving a living Lord.

The basic truth of Easter is simple: Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Therefore the implications of the resurrection are more than we can learn about during a 20 minute sermon on Easter Sunday! So we need the 50 days of Eastertide to reflect deeply on the many-sided meaning of our Lord’s resurrection.
Here are some themes to think and learn and pray about during Eastertide:

• You can meditate upon what the resurrection says about who Jesus Christ really is – the all powerful and righteous Son of God - (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:25-28).
• You may try to find the meaning of the truth that “our death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54-56).
• You should ask what does it mean that the power and might of the risen Jesus is available to Christians today (Ephesians 1:15-23).
• You will have to think of how the resurrection of Jesus assures of our own resurrection (1 Corinthians 15).

Eastertide allows us to think deeply and to pray diligently about what the resurrection of Jesus means to me personally, to us as God’s people, and to the whole world.
Let’s celebrate and learn exuberantly!