Life #after #Easter: #What #happens #next?
Image from firstchatham.org One week after Easter celebrations in the western church is a good time to ask: what happens now? Part of what we celebrated for Easter was Jesus' experience of overcoming betrayal, intense physical and emotional pain, abandonment, and death. Having done all of this, he did not leave behind those who abandoned and left him (almost) alone to die. The amazing and wonderful thing he did was this: he returned to them, welcomed them back into friendship, showed them his victory over all of the negativity, and then commissioned them to give out his message of life. The life Jesus is offering us is not simply an "extended" or forever life. As spiritual beings made in the image of God, we will live somewhere forever. What's to be determined is where and how we will live and what we will do with this "forever" life. , When Jesus says he came that we will have life, and have it to the fullest , Jesus is offering us the