Monday 9, 2012
Romans 6: 4-11

Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. NRSV

Easter time is a time of mixed emotions- jubilation yet at the same time somberness. Modern life and living has somehow managed to marry the religious and the secular and this has worked to the merchants’ benefits. One of my favorite scripture is Paul’s view that despite the motive, once the gospel is being preached a greater good is being achieved. However, as we contemplate all of these, we cannot underscore enough our gratitude that God has been good to us. We are thankful that He sent Jesus and we are also grateful that Jesus followed through even at his weakest point. And so it is with gusto that we sing, ‘Thine be the glory risen conquering Son, Christ the Lord is risen today, The strife is o’er the battle won, Up from the grave he arose and Sing we the King who is coming to reign’ on Easter Day. Christ is not seeking our somberness or even our jubilation so much as he is seeking people who are genuine in his service. Someone once said it is not so much that we should follow Jesus as that we should be like him. We have to be like him here on earth in order that we can be like him when he shall have returned to make us new citizens of the new heaven and the new earth. Andrae Crouch puts it beatufully in song:
It won’t be long….