This is Easter Week. The tomb is empty. Jesus has demonstrated definitively that he is God in flesh, that his way of living, his Kingdom is the supreme way of living. The church has long called the season immediately following Easter by the name of Eastertide. I love that name, if only for the image it evokes—the wave of love and power crashing onto the shore of humanity, filling it with the hope of a New Creation, a New Kingdom that has now come.

What will you do with the Living Waters of Easter?

Yesterday was the celebration. Yesterday we sang. Yesterday we gathered (virtually) in worship. Yesterday we discovered the empty tomb. Yesterday we feasted.

But what do we do now, on Easter Monday, awash in the tide that has come in among humanity?

Sunday is the day of discovery, the day of celebration.

But Easter Monday is the day we begin swimming in the tide. Easter Monday is the day we declare ourselves to be Easter People. It is quite easy to make Easter only about Jesus—only about his resurrection, only about his New Life. But to make Easter only about Jesus is to miss the point of Easter.

The tomb is empty, meaning that we need not fear death. Jesus has shown us that the way to defeat death goes straight through it, and on the other side we will be resurrected into the glory of God. Death—the thing that most people fear more than anything else—no longer holds sway over Easter People, for we know that we—like Jesus—have New Life. Easter is about Jesus—of course. But Easter is also about a church that now has her marching orders.

If we have New Life, we can live the Way of Jesus without fear. So let’s get about it on this Easter Monday.

We can love enemies freely. Will they kill us? Perhaps. But we are not afraid of death.

We can forgive those who have wronged us. Will they betray us? Perhaps. But we are not afraid of betrayal.

We can build peace among warring factions. Will they hate us? Perhaps. But we are not afraid of hatred.

And the list goes on, for we know that we can live the life given to us in Easter.

How can we do these things? Because Jesus has shown us the way forward. And so we follow him, knowing that this way of living—awash in the tide of Easter—is the way we were created to live from the very beginning, because the church was created to be a Easter People—people living the Resurrection every single day.

Easter Sunday is the day we celebrate the Empty Tomb.

Easter Monday is the day we begin to live the Empty Tomb.

The church awakes this morning to discover that she is awash in the tide of Easter.

Let’s go swimming.