Easter weekend has come and gone. What effect, if any, has it had on us?
As Christians attended the many Easter services, we spent time reflecting on Jesus’ Last Supper with his friends, and listened to the full Passion gospel readings of Jesus’ arrest, trial, suffering and death. Then on Sunday morning, we rejoiced in the resurrection of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. At this wonderful Easter Sunday service, Christians renewed their baptism vows, and the priests sprinkled us with blessed water as a sign of Christ’s sanctification of believers.
Easter reminded us that we are baptised into new life in the risen Jesus. His resurrection means hope in the afterlife, but it also means so much more. The Easter message calls to resurrection living in the here and now. As we renewed our baptismal vows, we promised to continue living the way the first apostles lived; in teaching and in fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayer. We promised to persevere in resisting evil. We acknowledged that whenever we fall into sin, we would repent and return to the Lord. We agreed to proclaim by word and example, the good news of Christ. We vowed to seek and serve Christ in all people, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Is anyone getting exhausted just from reading these promises?
Therein lies the issue. Last year at this time, I shared a verse of scripture that gives a clue as to how we have any hope of doing some, if not all of these things. It was:
“5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15)
We cannot possibly do many of the things that we agreed to in our baptismal vows, other than in and through the strength of Christ and of his Holy Spirit!
When we celebrate Easter each year, we are given the opportunity to celebrate the most important event in the history of Christianity: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Although every Sunday is a Day of Resurrection, we celebrate it in the fullest at Easter.
And so I ask again, what effect, if any, has it had on us?
God bless
Reverend Dave