Christ is Risen! So What Next?

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Alleluia, Christ is risen! So what next?

What do you do? What should you invest your life in? What’s the next job?

Go fishing. Wait for God to restore the kingdom. Set up a commune in the desert and write a commentary on the Book of Daniel. Make converts. Make money. Make more Baptist babies. Equip the saints for ministry. Launch a holy insurrection against all non-Christian governments. Secure peace. Cure cancer. Pray for the Cubs, Chelsea, or Collingwood to win the league. Plant trees. Plant a church. Print more Bibles. Destroy the porn and gambling industries. Stop climate change. Build more Christian schools and train more Christian teachers.

Jesus’s resurrection is more than proof of life after death and more than a banal metaphor that Jesus’s cause lives on.

If Jesus is risen, then everything changes. His resurrection isn't just a historical happenstance; it’s the foundation of the church’s mission. It’s a call to action, a reminder that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves: God’s plan to put the world to rights (HT: N.T. Wright).

First, the resurrection means hope. Hope is important because as the movie Rogue One taught us, “rebellions are built on hope.” The resurrection proves that God’s love conquers even the darkest places. For the church, this hope fuels its mission to share the gospel with the world—especially with those who feel lost or broken, or find themselves in a pit of despair.

Second, it’s about living boldly and beautifully. We are to be the Bold and the Beautiful for Jesus.

In our boldness, we tell people a message that might appear strange or even foolish to others, but is true: Jesus died for our sins and was raised for us to have life. The church is called to step into the breach, to tell people that God’s redeeming love meets them in Christ. There, we also advocate for justice, truth, and peace, to make things on earth as they are in heaven, as close as we can, so that the church is a living billboard of the coming kingdom of God.

To live beautifully we live in such a way that exhibits beauty even as we are fallen and fragile. Beauty is that which is desirable to see, touch, and know. The church models a beautiful life that is desirable, affectionate, and stimulating. Our age is one where people oscillate between despair and decadence. Where people deal with the disappointments of life with entertainment, numbness, and ritualized selfishness. What they need is to see an alternative way of being human. That life does not have to be endured or destroyed by an unhinged pursuit of desires, life can be beautiful. To love others more than oneself is beautiful. To serve rather than be served is beautiful. To light a candle against the darkness rather than cry over it is beautiful. The beauty of the risen Lord can be lived out and shone to others. A beauty that stands in sharp relief to the ugliness of world that has mutilated itself by a quest for pleasure and power.

If Jesus is risen, then put your faith where your fear is.

If Jesus is risen, then nourish his body the church, with your love, your time, your money, your service, your encouragement, and beautify his bride for the great wedding feast.

If Jesus is risen, then your business is the kingdom and the kingdom calls us to busyness.

If Jesus is risen, then do hard things for God, crazy things, risky things, redemptive things, things which will carry over into the new creation.