Easter 2022

Jesus Says
2 Corinthians 5:17, Matthew 28, John 13:34-35, 15:9-17, I John 4

16 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. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the *new creatio*n has come: The old has gone, the new is here! —2 Corinthians 5:16-17

The empty tomb and the resurrected Jesus tell us the new creation is here!

And so:
Mary and Mary go to the tomb and there is an earthquake and the guards are so afraid they are like dead men, but the angel tells Mary and Mary, “Do not be afraid. Jesus is not here. He is risen as he said.” And so they run off, “afraid and yet filled with joy.” Their joy is starting to match their fear, but then they see Jesus…
And Jesus says, “Do not be afraid.”

New creation means a world where it is possible to not be afraid, as Jesus tells so many of them on resurrection day.
New creation means peace is real, which is why Jesus tells so many of them on resurrection day, “Peace be with you.” (Luke 24:36, John 20:19-21, 26)
New creation means the tyrants of this world can only threaten us with something that has no power. Jesus has broken the power of sin and death. Jesus has made the threats of destruction empty and temporal. Jesus has declared that all power in heaven and on earth belongs to him. (Matthew 28:18)
New creation means we really can love like Jesus told us to love.

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” —John 13:34-35

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.14 You are my friends if you do what I command.15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.17 This is my command: Love each other. —John 15:9-17

-But just saying it wasn’t going to be enough, so Jesus loved us in the most insane way possible.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”(Romans 5:8)

-And now, because of what Jesus did, we…
…follow our bliss, do what makes us happy, practice self-care…wait, are we doing it wrong?

-New Creation = new way of being human, and Jesus said the very essence of that way of life would be to “Love One Another”

What if we did something inconvenient everyday that helped someone else?
I wonder if the mental health equivalent to daily exercise and physical health is doing something significant every day that is personally inconvenient for the sake of someone else.

People are always at their healthiest when they’re helping someone else.
“Hurt people who are healing, heal people who are hurting.” (Jarrett Stevens)

New creation means a world where it is possible to not be afraid, as Jesus tells so many of them.
New creation means the tyrants of this world can only threaten us with something that has no power. Jesus has the power and He gives us peace.
New creation means we really can love like Jesus told us to love. We can offer forgiveness and mercy. We can be selfless and kind. We can be salt and light - preservers and illuminators - in a world of decay and darkness.

Jesus did the work, Jesus loved us to the end, Jesus called his own death and resurrection, Jesus walked us out of the grave into life forever - I think we should do what he says!