Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)

    The church building is quiet. The crowds are gone. The frilly spring dresses are hung in the closets. Relatives have returned home. Songs of victory and celebration are faint echoes in the memories of dispersed worshipers. Monday has come. There are bills to pay, jobs to do, people to see, work to accomplish, diapers to change, dishes to clean, yards to mow, chemotherapy to endure, jobs to find, clients to call upon, deals to make, apologies to offer... Life goes on.

    I wonder what it was like so long ago. After a roller coaster 10 days of glory and grief, what was their Monday like? Did they rest? Did they go tell their families and their friends? Did they sleep late trying to let their weary bodies catch up with their soaring spirits? Did they wake up on that first Monday morning and wonder if it had all been a dream?

    Monday’s are never easy for most of us. It’s a day to get the workweek on track. Schedules have to be made, weekly goals set, appointments double-checked, and a whole new mountain of “to do’s” stands before us. For the disciples, however, how do you climb the mountain after the ride of the last ten days?

    A week and half before, you marched into Jerusalem with Jesus to shouts of “Hosanna, hail Son of David! Blessed is he comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Yesterday you were gathered in a room with ten others, afraid, embarrassed, and devastated only to hear, “Peace be with you! Why are you troubled? Why do doubts rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet? Pass me some fish and I will show you that I am not a ghost, but your risen Lord.”

    In between the two you have felt every emotion there is to feel.

    You’ve lost one of your own, the traitor, who hung himself for the shameful thing he had done.

    You’ve heard Jesus embarrass the arrogant religious scholars with questions they could not answer.

    You’ve fallen asleep in Gethsemane and watched as they arrested your Lord and led him away. Worst of all, you’ve forsaken him.

    You’ve hidden with your Galilean friends behind locked doors until the feast died down and you could slink back in defeat to the shores of Galilee and try to rebuild the broken pieces of your dream-shattered life.

    And now this!

    Jesus is alive from the dead. The Lord has defeated death. He is raised. Your broken hopes are no longer broken but now confirmed. Your fear has melted away into confident courage. But what are you supposed to do? Where are you supposed to go? How will life be different now, for certainly, it can never be the same again?

But what are you supposed to do? Where are you supposed to go?

    We’re not exactly sure what happened that first Monday. We do know, however, the next sixth weeks will forever change them, and their change will certainly reach through the centuries and change us. We do know this: they would listen and learn from their Master, they would recall the things he taught them and see them in a fresh light because of his resurrection, they would wait on the Lord in prayer, and they would be filled with the Holy Spirit and change the world.

    Well over 100,000 Mondays have come and gone since that first Monday. Our lives have been touched and our destinies have been changed by the events that happened early on the first day of the week when the tomb was opened and the Lord walked triumphantly from the grave. On this Monday, we ought to remind ourselves of that early passion by the disciples who firmly believed their Lord was risen from the dead. We should follow their example and make that first Monday commitment to listen to our Master, to see what he taught in the light of his resurrection, to wait on him in prayer, and to live for him by the power of his Spirit.

    Monday’s can be hard. For believers, however, they are the first day after the resurrection. We don’t just begin a new week, we also get a fresh start on new life — life shaped by the empty tomb, the power of a risen Lord, and the joy of knowing that our wildest dreams are not wispy memories from a night’s sleep, but God’s promises waiting on the horizon to dawn.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:6-9)

Title: "The Day After"
Author: Phil Ware
Publication Date: April 1, 2002

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