Yesterday was the most holy day of the holiest week of the year. It is so important to experience Easter each year. Every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection, but Easter Sunday is the day we take it all in on a deeper level.

Now that it has been experienced for this year, it is time to integrate the joy of Easter Sunday into every day that I live. What does it mean today that Easter Sunday really happened over 2000 years ago? How does the resurrection of Jesus Christ affect how I live today, and for the coming year?

There remains a lot that doesn’t make sense to me about God, His love for this world and mankind. I don’t fully understand how it is all going to work out in the end. Easter Sunday gives me a preview. It shows me that God is up to something wonderful. He has proven there is a way to fix what is so wrong with this world. Easter Sunday shows me that everything will happen when I least expect it to happen. It fills me with expectation and awe. I don’t have all the answers, but I know there are answers.

Paul said it this way to the Corinthians:

“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:1, 3-4

We Christians take our stand on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is the entire focus of Easter Sunday. It is Christ’s resurrection that assures me of hope. I don’t have to see how everything will work out because I can see how Christ has worked out. I can be assured that Christ finished His hard work in this world. It motivates me to focus on my own hard work. I don’t have to like the work He has given me to do, but I do need to value it. If it was important for Christ to come to this earth and do His work, then it is important for me to live like Him.

If we are thrilled by Easter Sunday so we can be thrilled by cloudy Monday mornings. Underneath the chores that have to be done, the sad news I will be forced to digest, the rotten smells that are part of living in this world, there is hope in the resurrection. Christ has risen to heaven. He leads the way. He didn’t just live again in His former way contained by flesh like Lazarus and the others who were resurrected from the dead. He was the first to rise again into the glory of the full resurrection. We await that resurrection for ourselves and in the meantime we live this life in the hope of glory.

The day after Easter Sunday is a day to get on with the gift of living. It is a day to find the highest meaning and intention in the life God has purposed for us on this earth.