Communion With the Christ:: The Season of Easter: His Resurrection, Our New Life

In the Early Apostolic Church Easter was thought of a Season of fifty days and not just One day. Fifty days Was reflective of the Jubilee year which was part of the Old Covenant, which brought the complete forgiveness of debt and the restoration of God's intent for Israel, that is, the Work of Jesus and the Resurrection restores God's intent for humanity to have a relationship with God, the Holy Trinity, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all through the Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ.

Even after the Apostles had their post resurrection encounters with Jesus on several occasions, and after they knew at this point that Jesus was and is alive, that the same Jesus that they had known and shared so much with was now without question alive, yet they still had not fully come to understand what they were to meant to do.

Jesus had for three and- a- half years taught the Disciples and preached to the crowds concerning the Kingdom of God and their place in that Kingdom.

Jesus had taught many things, and some of the truth behind these things yet eluded the Disciples understanding. They had left all behind to follow Jesus.

They had come through this time with Jesus, their expectations had risen to a peak. They had witnessed his power. They embraced Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. They walked with Jesus and came to Jerusalem saw his glorious entrance into the Holy City.

They knew the prophecies; Jesus had challenged the religious establishment which culminated in the cleansing of the Temple of God and exposed the corruption of the religious leaders.

They saw all these things and then just when everything seemed as if all their hopes would come to pass, Jesus was arrested, crucified, dies and is buried. Then when all seems lost Jesus was raised from the dead and appeared to them.

Life as Usual

Even after the Disciples encounter Jesus resurrected and they see that he lives, yet after all this the Disciples still do not yet seem to understand what they are to do.

The Disciples do not grasp that the events which they had been a part of with Jesus called upon them to be transformed, to have a new life, that things can never be the same, Jesus has changed all things forever.

The Disciples demonstrating this lack of understanding as to what has happened when they all return to life as usual. This is shown in St. Peter’s statement.

“I am going fishing” Jhn: 21:3

The Disciples had returned to life as it was, as it had been.

Hanging on to the Old

When St. Peter said “I’m going fishing” he was saying “I am who I have always been”. St. Peter was not just returning to his old profession but to his old self. St. Peter did not realize even at this point, that he and, all of us need to see our lives in an all-new way. We need to let the old go; we are new creations in Jesus.

God calls us all to walk in this newness of life when we encounter the risen Lord. Life can never be the same. Jesus Has Changed All Things Forever.

St. Paul wrote of this embracing of the all-new life in Jesus.

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” Philp: 3:7-11

It Is the Lord

Jesus then appeared early one morning on the beach of the Sea of Galilee and calls the fishing Disciples to himself and began to show them that life can now never be the same.

“Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends haven’t you any fish?”

“No,” they answered.

He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish”. (4-6)

Jesus has come to redirect them to his purpose in choosing them. Jesus did not call them to return to boats, nets and tackle as fishermen, but rather, to have all new transformed lives, and to tell others about Jesus Christ.

“Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.” (7-9)

This is not about occupations they had, but Jesus chooses their familiar surroundings in which to give them a greater clarity about this transformation, which is bringing them, and us, into the reality of whom he is and who they and we are in him.

They know that it is their Lord whom they have met this early morning on the shores of the sea. They eat with Jesus and know all the more that Jesus lives and is with them.

Newness in Him

Through his resurrection and our encounter with the resurrected Christ our lives can never be the same. We cannot be like the Disciples who at first return to life as normal; our lives can never be the same, we cannot just “go fishing” ever again.

Once we encounter the resurrected Jesus, life should never be the same, we should see ourselves and all life in a whole new way; a way in which we are in union with him participating with the Lord in all he is doing upon the Earth.

There is a newness in Jesus, all of our life becomes about, and for him.

Jesus is telling they, and us, that in him even the “mundane” is changed. All things made new. Dying and living in him, this was the message that the Apostles and the Apostolic Church proclaimed, letting the world know that there is a whole new life for them in Jesus Christ.

As we pass through this life, we are passing through it with and in him. We are in him a whole new creation. This is our new life, a resurrected life, a life resurrected from all that went before. That in all things in our new life should point to Jesus in every word and action.

The Apostles were called to go forth and tell all the world about Jesus and all he has accomplished for us. Our calling is the same in the living of our new lives in Jesus, we point those around us to Jesus as an invitation to enter into this new life and experience the risen Lord.

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2Cor:5:14-21

Here & Now

St. Paul wrote that Christians are to keep the resin Lord in mind at all times. That we died with Jesus and live with Jesus here and now not just in the Eternity to come but even now.

“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel,”2Tim:2:8

That same Jesus who called the Apostles on that beach early that morning so long ago and shared with them the fish is the same Jesus who, is here today and every day to send us forth in that new life.

We need to realize that his resurrection is our resurrection into an all-new life in himself as well, one that ensures us of eternal life with our Lord Jesus …

Benediction: May we each and all ever live the resurrection life in and thru Jesus, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.