“Then the disciples went back to their homes.” John 20:10

Dear Friends,

“The Lord is Risen!  He is risen indeed!”

Now what?

It’s fascinating what John tells us happened after the disciples had discovered the empty tomb.  Mary had told them what she had seen, and John and Peter ran to the tomb to see for themselves.  They saw that the tomb was, in fact, empty.  The burial cloths were lying on the ground, the face cloth was folded neatly by itself.  But then, what happened?  John tells us quite simply, “Then the disciples went back to their homes.”

In a way, this still happens today.  Seven weeks ago we started a journey called Lent, a time of reflection and preparation for the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  We start the journey with ashes, we remember the Lord’s last supper with his disciples, we read the accounts of his death.  Then comes Easter, and we celebrate the Good News of his resurrection from the dead.  We shout “He is Risen.  He is risen indeed!”

Then we go home.

Monday comes after Easter Sunday, and we go back to life as usual, exhausted from the journey, but no different than before we started.

This should not be.  Jesus spent the next 40 days leading up to his ascension teaching the disciples to go out into the world to make know what had happened.  The book of Acts recounts for us what happened when the disciples followed this call.  They preached the risen Christ because they knew the risen Christ, and they knew the new life given by the risen Christ.  Through their sharing and living the Good News lives were changed.

The risen Christ changes lives.  If we believe that Jesus Christ is risen today, let’s not just sing it and celebrate it in worship, but let us let this joyous truth transform the way we look at the world.  No longer can we simply go back to our homes, to our offices, to our classrooms: we go into the world as a mission field.  Our homes, our offices, our classrooms are now our mission, places for us to take the Good News of Christ so that lives may be changed.

Friends, in the spirit of the resurrection, go into the world and let it be known that the Lord is risen.  He is risen indeed.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Ethan