A Prayer For The Monday After Easter

 

Good morning Lord Jesus!  It is Monday morning.  Our ears are still ringing with the greeting of all greetings: “He is risen!  He is Risen indeed!”  On this first Monday after that glorious day, we can only imagine the astonishment and the bewilderment of those who had witnessed it all.  We can only imagine the looks on their faces, the questions they asked, and the comments they made as they gathered to discuss the meaning of it all.  They had yet to recover from the awful scene of seeing You hanging on a cross.  And then to hear You cry out, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do!”  What were they to make of that?  They had seen Your body placed in a tomb.  Thirty-six  hours later, they saw You walking and talking and showing Yourself alive. What could it mean?  Were they to see some kind of symbolism in it all?  Was it really true?  Were You really dead?  Even more, were You really alive.

 

We confess this morning, that the story is so old and has been told so many times that we take for granted that it really happened.  We confess that our attitude almost borders on apathy and detachment.  We take for granted it happened, we accept it as a fact in history.  But do we not miss the thrill and shrill of realizing that all our hopes and dreams of believing that death is not the end, that there is a continuity in life that does not stop with death depends on Your resurrection?  When we take lightly the resurrection, do we not miss the depth of meaning of the words of Jesus when He said,  "Fear not, You believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so I would have told You, I go to prepare a place for You, that where I am You can be also."  There is a place, whether in this universe or outside of it, it really doesn’t matter, but when we die we go to be with You.

 

Grant, dear Lord, that the sunrise of each new day may move us to exclaim, “He is risen!  He is risen indeed.”  Grant that Your glorious resurrection may truly be the spring board of our faith and that we may live every day in the realization that we will be fully alive, fully recognizable and fully capable of taking in the mystery and the marvel of eternity when You call us to come and be with You.  Even now, oh Living Christ, grant to each of us the certainty that death is but an upgrade into the eternity which awaits all who trust in You.

 

This I pray in Your holy name.    Amen