After the Resurrection: the excitement of Eastertide
Easter is several weeks behind us now; the last of the Easter candy is long gone and the Easter-themed services at church have been replaced with more typical fare. But did you know that the Easter drama hasn’t yet concluded?
There are two important events coming up that, with Easter, are generally seen as the culmination of Jesus’ ministry on earth. The first is Ascension Day, which marks Jesus’ departure to heaven; and the second is Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus’ disciples, as Jesus had promised.
These two events (which fall into the liturgical season of Eastertide) are of immense significance themselves, but they also serve as reminders to modern Christians of the turbulent, exciting weeks that must have followed Jesus’ resurrection. The Gospel accounts tell us relatively few details about the time between Easter and Pentecost, but it’s easy to imagine the chaotic excitement of those days.
The reports of Jesus’ resurrection must have spread like wildfire, frustrating his enemies and giving new life to the fledgling Christian church. Yes, Jesus’ resurrection completed his saving work, but it was in the weeks following it that his disciples began to understand the true extent of that work, and to accept the task of spreading the Gospel to the world.
Are you looking ahead to Ascension Day and Pentecost? Do you see their connection to Easter Sunday? Can you imagine the excitement that must have gripped Jerusalem in the aftermath of Jesus’ resurrection… and do you feel an echo of that same excitement today?
Seven weeks of Easter and culminating in Pentecostal Sunday do indeed chronical a period of anticipation, anxiety and reflection that the “originals” must have lived through. For us today, we live in constant anticipation of His second coming, anxiety of trying to be “ready” and reflection on the first Easter. What happens is that when Jesus ascended, He wasn’t long in his reappearance. Now, we are told of this “second coming” which could be today, tomorrow or ten thousand years from now. There are enbough distractions in this modern world that we drift in and out of that anticipation. There are enough worldwide natural disasters (another earthquake in Chile yesterday)wars and religious rebellion on a major scale that one could truly begin to see the real possibility of the signs of His second coming based on John The Revelators writings in the Book of Revelations. Are we in greater anticipation that He might come at any moment or are we secretly in greater anticipation that we might have won the lottery last night? Just something to ponder!
The Bible stated that such things will happen before Christ come,I truely believed that the second coming of our LORD JESUS Christ is just around the conner, it could be the next hour.