When the dust settles after Easter, many return to their daily routine and leave Christianity aside. A new command Jesus said I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this will all people know that you are my followers, if you love one another.鈥� (John 13:31-35)
So, what are we to do after the hype of Easter is over? Do we just go about doing the same things that we have been doing up to Easter? Or does the experience of Easter change us and shape our living, or does it at least refresh our standing commitment to our faith?
The Easter message of hope and love needs to prevail and continue long after we celebrate Easter. The message of working for social justice and equality needs to be proclaimed and lived. Long after the coloured eggs are eaten, and the Easter bonnets stored away, the message remains that, as followers of Jesus, we are freed to work for liberation and freedom, do justice and seek peace and wholeness in His name.
Our land needs a revival of the heart desperately; it needs to embrace the Prince of Peace, not the dogs of wars.聽 There has been a coarsening of our culture in my lifetime. We have become a less civil, a less civilized, a less Christian nation in my lifetime. Indeed, we have even become a nation that wants not merely a separation of church and state, but a separation of God from country! We can鈥檛 go around measuring our goodness by what we don鈥檛 do鈥y what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude鈥e鈥檝e got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create鈥nd who we include.
The Easter message does not end with the resurrection, but continues on as His followers, as we, live with the hope found in the message and life of Jesus. The message that lingers long after Easter is that we are called and invited to follow Jesus. We are freed to live the life of hope. May we do so the day after Easter and every day.
