It’s the day after Resurrection Sunday. Is it just a day to head to Walgreens and buy some discounted Easter candy? (Jelly beans taste even better when they’re 60% off.)
The Christian calendar proclaims the resurrection in a far different manner. The centerpiece of the message proclaimed by Jesus’ first followers was simple: Jesus had risen from the dead. Temporal time and eternity met in the person of the risen Messiah at the empty tomb.
He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. (Matthew 28:6)
In the beginning, the followers of Jesus met daily. Organically, these ad hoc gatherings took on a shape of their own as believers gathered on the first day of the week – the day on which the Resurrection occurred – to worship, share communion, learn together, and encourage one another. But the linkage between yearly Passover observance and the events leading to Jesus’ death and resurrection called forth a different kind of remembrance among the majority-Jewish early church. God had linked Passover and Resurrection Day, just as he had Shavuot and Pentecost. The first Christian communities began creating their own yearly ritual around the story of Passover deliverance fulfilled in the finished work of the Messiah. [Read more]
