In just about any sports match where one of the teams is on a good run to a possible championship, the winning team coach in a post-game interview is likely to say, "We will celebrate this victory for a little bit, but we still have a lot of work to do to reach the ultimate goal which is a championship." Fans feel the same way. There is a sense of celebration, but also a feeling that what your team has earned is a more difficult game the following week in which time you, the fan, will feel the pressure of anxiety increase until the day of the next big game.
I remember Joe Gibbs, then coach of the Washington Redskins American football team, who after one of three Superbowl wins aid when asked about how he was feeling, "I am truly humbled." You has a sense that he was more relieved that he and his team achieved their goals, and that he was aware that he could not have done it without a solid group of players, fans, and other administrative staff. Humility in the face of victory is important, and something that most of us perhaps do not see often enough.
Easter is in one sense a celebration of a victory for fans of Jesus. Because Jesus overcame the sin of the world and spited death with resurrection, humanity has a hope that no matter how great are the suffering and evils of the world that press down on our fragile states of being, humanity can have hope that that resurrection is possible. More than that, we can participate in new life here and now because of the work Jesus has accomplished.
As with that coach on the way to a championship, Jesus asks us to keep doing what he started. Living in a post-resurrection world means that that Jesus began the work of the Spirit in the Kingdom of God among us. His primary mission was to reveal a new Kingdom and a new pact God was making with humankind. That pact is that God has given us life, but not without purpose and function. That new life is to continue the work of Christ: to seek justice, to love our neighbor, to welcome the outcast, to feed the hungry, to promote peace, to offer compassion, to serve others, and doing so offer others the new life that we have already been given. Easter means that Christians must renew their commitment to do this work that Christ has begun in them.
This is how the Kingdom of God will continue to be revealed in the world today. If Christians are to do it, it will mean that all existing human social structures, political systems, religions, sects, denominations, doctrines, theological propositions, traditions, etc. are instantly called into question. It means that Christians can be content in their new life that has given hope, but never satisfied with the state of the world or the state of their own personal identities in that world. So Christians, what will you do about your new life? What will you do this year to work along side God, yoked to the plowshare amidst the fields of a fallen humanity which will not yield the Kingdom unless you are willing to get dirty with your own sacrifice of service?
Related posts:
