Now that Easter is Over

Simon Peter said to them, 'I am going fishing.' They said to him, 'We will go with you.'

Let me get this straight, Simon Peter, along with some of the other disciples of Jesus, had just witnessed the most transforming event in human history i.e., the resurrection of Jesus, and he wants to go fishing? It's like having thwarted some dreaded disease then moving forward with life like nothing happened.

How can this be? When the woman at the well encountered Jesus she ran and told everyone about how dramatically she was affected by him. When Zacchaeus met Jesus his life turned upside down and he gave back what he had defrauded others and more. When Legion, restored to his rightful mind by Jesus, Legion became Jesus' ambassador to his home town. Over and over again we read this in scripture where having met Jesus, people's lives changed.

How could Peter return to fishing as though nothing had happened? It's like having this wonderful, celebratory Easter worship experience then going back to work on Monday as though life is the same. The sad reality is that this is exactly what happens repeatedly, year in and year out. We celebrate the risen Lord on Sunday then return to life on Monday as though nothing has changed.

In his little volume Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg talks about moving from the Jesus he knew as a child to the one he now knows as an adult, but in a more personal way (HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York, 1995 pg. 3). What Borg is saying that he knew Jesus in a sense as a child but found Jesus in new and personal ways as an adult that have been life changing for him. As I read his book, I remembered how others have spoken with me about being "born again." They knew Jesus as a child, but were claiming Jesus in a more personal way as an adult. Though Borg and born again Christians might separate on the way they know Jesus, they both have in common the way this new relationship with Jesus has changed their lives.

That would be my hope for each of us during this Eastertide-we would know the resurrected Jesus in new, more personal life changing ways. I simply don't think that once we have encountered the risen Jesus our lives can be the same.

Prayer
Gracious God I give thanks on this first day of Eastertide for the gift of a risen savior. Lead me to know him better each day that knowing him I might understand how I might better serve you through Christ my Lord. Amen.

C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana