Matthew 28:1-15
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
Devotional
How are you doing on your new years' resolutions?
Yeah, me either.
Once a year, on an otherwise arbitrary day, we trick ourselves into believing that we can suddenly behave like different people. For some, it actually works. Marathons, diets, and earlier alarm clocks are committed to and ran, kept, and awoken to.
For others, they are skipped, cheated on, and snoozed.
For the lot of us who are the skippers, cheaters, and snoozers (we're actually a fun lot), we fall into the belief-trap that once we mess up once, we're might as well give up on the resolution until the following January 1. The rest of the year is forfeit, doomed to never reach the marathon-running, diet-keeping, alarm-clock-rising heights we once aspired to.
But, like, what if we we had New Month's Resolutions? Or New Week's Resolutions? Or New Day Resolutions? What if we recognized the fact that once we mess up a New Year's Resolution, we could just, you know...start over?
This is how God treats Sundays.
In Genesis 1, God creates for six days (Sunday through Friday), reaching the zenith of His creation - humanity - on day six (Fridays have always been awesome).
On day seven (Saturday) God rested and invited humanity to rest with him.
And then there was a Day Eight. Or, if you prefer, Day One - The Sequel. On which humanity and Divinity got on with it and kept creating.
In the Easter story, it's significant that there's a similar rhythm. Friday (day six) is the zenith of God's redemptive and revelatory work, in Jesus on the cross.
Saturday (day seven) is a day of rest. Jesus lies in the grave.
And then Resurrection Sunday is Day Eight. Or, rather, a brand new, never before seen reboot of Day One. Jesus' resurrection is the first day of the new creation, of the new heavens and the new earth. And, historically, the church has treated every single Sunday (every single week) as a celebration of this New Day One. A weekly celebration that all of creation is being renewed, restored, and rejuvenated.
That's why Sundays are such a big deal to the church. It's not just a day we happen to get together in buildings and do group karaoke. It's the day that we remember - every week - that God was dead; and now He's not. Creation was decaying; and now it's not. Death had the last word; and now it doesn't.
Apply
You can start over again...today. You don't have to wait for new years. What do you need to start over?
Pray
Christ, we thank you for the gift of new grace every single morning. And little Easters every single week. Help me to start fresh again today. Amen.
16-20 (the Great Commission)
Notes (Ascension Day)
- Lectionary gospel for Ascension Day. Pairs with Daniel 7:9–14 (see Daniel 7). Matt 28:18 is the Daniel 7:14 callback made explicit.
- Conceptual note: heaven is not "up." More like a parallel dimension running alongside this one. The Ascension is not Jesus floating away; it is Jesus being seated in the throne room of the unseen realm — the same throne room Hebrews invites us to approach with boldness. Kingdom work = removing barriers between visible and invisible.