On Easter Monday

What does faith look like the day after?  The tomb was empty...She saw Him and He spoke her name-only her name!-and she knew that He knew her...that He was her Jesus, her risen Savior.   She'd already quit her old job and lately had been walking with her head held high as she followed Jesus as He taught and healed and loved.  But....now what?  Where was she to go now?  What was she to do now?

And so He told her,  

"Mary, you cannot hold Me. I must rise above this world to be with My Father, who is also your Father; My God, who is also your God. Go tell this to all My brothers."

 Mary Magdalene obeyed and went directly to His disciples.

" I have seen the Lord, and this is what He said to me . . ."

And what about the disciples?  They'd left their jobs and families to follow this Jesus.  They knew that Jesus didn't want them arguing about power, but never in their wildest dreams did they imagine that Jesus' power would come to THIS.  A humiliating death?  A borrowed tomb?  And then they had to go into hiding.  Surely Jesus' body was out there somewhere-But they weren't about to risk their own lives to find a dead body.  What was the point any way?  And then suddenly, He was there!  In the same room with them!  How in the world could this be real??  Yet they could touch Him...they saw the holes where nails had been just 3 days ago.  And Jesus spoke again, He spoke of peace...peace from a once dead man and His Father....and about sending them out.  But....where?  Where were they to go now?  What were they to do now?

And so Simon Peter says, "I'm going fishing."

It's the only thing he knows to do.  

The Voice Bible has this to say:

After Jesus’ death, the disciples don’t know what to do with themselves, other than return to their old livelihood of fishing. This band of fishermen is lost and lonely, but just when they think things can’t be stranger, Jesus shows up. He tells them to fish on the other side of the boat. They do, and they are suddenly overwhelmed with fish. The nets are bulging.

What He shows here is that not only will their old ways of living leave His followers as empty as the nets, but their old habits will not work either. He has impacted their lives in a way that changed them forever. They can’t go back. And He knows they don’t know how to go forward.

It's Easter Monday, and I can't go back to my self.  I can't go back to excusing away my sin.  I can't turn a hardened heart away from the fact that my greed and gluttony with food were just one of the reasons we have a "Good" Friday.  I can't ignore Truth that speaks to my heart about my calling as a parent, BEING a Mother; is more important than the THINGS I want to give my children.  

 Jesus gave me new life for more than this.  I am called for more than this.  But I'm not so sure how to go forward.  

Or.... let's just be honest...I don't know that I want to go forward.  
I have to change my habits.  I have to put forth the effort with my sin-weary body and heart to move to the other side of the boat.  Can't we just stay on Resurrection Sunday with that good feeling in my heart and leave it at that?  

It's temping, admit it.  

But I've held the weight of the filled nets before.  I've experienced His glory and my heart whispers along with that beloved disciple, "It is the Lord!"  Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this is Jesus and this is from Jesus.  The Jesus who conquered sin and death, who named the stars and told the ocean waves to "only come this far."  THAT is the only way I can change...the only way I can move or swim to shore.  Jesus.  On a Monday morning.  I serve a risen King...a risen King who not so long after breakfast scattered His followers all over the world.  And they scattered because of persecution.  They served the same risen King I do, why should I expect different or more from Him?

 Praise God for an Easter Monday.