Before we turn from Easter to the work week, I’ve got the privilege of concluding our devotional. Thanks for reading and sharing!
So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. (1 Cor 15:42-43)
Easter Monday is that forgettable day of the church calendar seemingly dedicated to, well, getting on with our lives. It’s remarkable how quickly the unexpected, inexplicable joy of yesterday dissolves into the predictable, prosaic routine of today and tomorrow.
But we actually spend much of our lives in something like Easter Monday. We’re not unaware that the Resurrection has happened. But today we’re already feeling ourselves pulled away from that reality by the need to be realistic. We’re already tempted to surrender to the insistent demands of a world that seems unchanged by the miracle we celebrated yesterday.
So let me send you forth into the extended Easter Monday of your life with the words of the 19th century German Pietist Christoph Blumhardt, who urged his flock to “expect the overcoming of all the powers of evils, of all the sin that still prevails.” Live in “active expectation” that the Resurrection has left nothing unchanged: the perishable has become imperishable; the dishonored, glorified; the weak, powerful.
“In this expectation,” Blumhardt preached, “we will not become weary. In all our activities, we must live in Jesus Christ’s future.”
May you live in this future, to God’s glory and our neighbors’ good!
Jesus, I believe in your resurrection.
Help me now to live as if I believe. Amen.
The Pietist Schoolman 