The Week after Easter

The eggs are put away if they are plastic and thrown away if they are hard-boiled. (If the latter has not been done, you’ll know it in a few days.)

The colorful, matching church clothes for Easter Sunday have been washed and added to the closet of choices to wear. The Easter baskets have been stored away, hibernating for another year.

The Easter sermons have been filed away, or more likely forgotten, as the “amens” fade, quickly being drowned out by the incessant droning of this world of noise. Easter has come and gone. What now?

What the followers of Jesus did serves as a great model for what we can do during the week following Easter…and beyond.

We should:

Listen to Jesus

Look for Jesus

Live for Jesus.

For the 40 days between the Jesus’ resurrection and ascension back to heaven, Jesus continued to teach those who were now sold-out followers of a risen Savior. At one of these gatherings, Jesus said, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5).

Jesus knew that His followers had no idea what to do next. So, He instructed them. They were to wait for the indwelling Holy Spirit who would empower their work and mission. Jesus knows that apart from revealing Himself to us, we don’t know what to do either.

So, He gives us the instruction of His Word, the opportunity to connect with Him through prayer, and the fellowship, love, and strength of the church. A post-Easter Christian can listen to Jesus to see what His will is next.

Acts 1:9-11 describes Jesus’ ascension back to Heaven this way:

“…he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.'”

After Jesus disappeared from their sight through the clouds, the disciples stood gawking in amazement. Two angels showed up to inform them that they needed to do what Jesus told them to do because He will come back one day.

We should be living each day with the knowledge that Jesus could come back today. So, a post-Easter Christian should be looking for Jesus.

Looking for Jesus does not entail sitting and doing nothing.

Instead, since Jesus is coming soon, a post-Easter Christian should be living for Jesus. Each day. Everyday. Today. What should a follower of Jesus be doing the week after Easter? Listen to, Look for, and Live for Jesus. Now, get to it!