After Easter. Now what?

Christians celebrate Easter with the joy of new life, second changes, and the promise that death doesn’t have the last word.  Easter is grand, glorious, and hope-filled; and it lasts until Pentecost. 

Because the gospels portray Jews—and in particular the Jewish religious leaders, the scribes and Pharisees—in rather unflattering ways, it’s often forgotten that Jews and Christians share the 50 days between Passover and Pentecost.  Leviticus in the Old Testament recounts the “counting of days in chapter 23: 

 “You shall count until the day after the seventh sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord.”  

In that same timeframe, Christians are counting from the celebration of Easter.  And if this is news to you, it all comes together in Acts chapter 2 with the disciples gathered together and proclaiming in the native tongues of all the travelers on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate Shavout—the Festival of Weeks. 

Yes.  Christians and Jews share this sacred time, together.  A time of “counting.”  A time of “waiting.” 

But what happens when the counting and the waiting are over? 

Jews celebrate God’s gift of the Torah at Mt. Sinai.  Following the great escape from Egypt, God leads the people to Sinai and delivers the books and stories for God’s people to live by, including the Commandments gifted in those well-known tablets of stone. 

Christians celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Perhaps in similar ways, the reminder, the help, the power of God to live in relationship with God.  This time, no rigid tablets of stone—quite the opposite—the sound of a mighty rush of wind, flames of fire dancing over people’s heads, it’s the Advocate who helps us know what to say and do since Jesus has ascended or returned to God. 

Jesus, in several accounts of instructions to his disciples, followers, and believers, points out the ministry of caring for one another, treating one another with respect, and in a famous parable in Matthew’s gospel of the sheep and the goats says to us—“whenever you do unto the least of these, you do also for me.”  Undoubtedly that’s a part of going to all nations and baptizing them and teaching them.  And just as undoubtedly that’s what it means to be “witnesses” as Luke describes in Luke and Acts. 

For Jews, chapter 23 in Leviticus goes on to describe the conclusion of the “counting of days” with this observation and instruction:  “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God.” 

It seems to me that Jews and Christians, as well as all people of great faith, share a vision of the world that includes care for one another—especially those who are suffering, especially those who don’t have enough, especially those who are at risk.  For Jews and Christians in particular, these days of counting and waiting end not just on a prescribed date, but when those who celebrate this time begin again to live into the covenant that God has shared with us and shown us.  For Jews, it’s the life Torah prescribes.  For Christians, it’s the life of the Torah lived out in Jesus. 

And somehow, Easter seems to lose some of its special meaning, if all we do is hold up a picture of an empty tomb without going forth to live the life Jesus teaches us.  Come Pentecost, the time of waiting is over.  The Holy Spirit comes to inhabit us and we are called to move with a purpose in the world—caring for one another, “doing unto the least of these,” and leaving the gleanings of the harvest for the poor and for the alien. 

Easter days are waning.  It’s time to move into (new) life with a purpose—sharing, witnessing, telling, doing for others.