Normal Life - by Greg Steggerda
Holy Week is over. The sad services of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, the melancholy introspection of Saturday were flooded away by the great good news of Easter Sunday. But now it’s done for another year. We’re back to normal life.
That gave me a little insight into a minor question this morning, as I read this from Mark 20:6-7: “‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, “He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”’”
I’ve sometimes wondered why Jesus sent his disciples to Galilee. Why not just meet them somewhere in Jerusalem, where they already were? Why not save them the steps; after all, the new church would start to grow in the capital city?
Today it looks to me like Jesus is sending them back to their normal lives, in a way. No, he didn’t intend for them to go back to fishing, but Galilee was where they lived when it all started. Galilee was where he called them away from their occupations and led them on a revolutionary course of discipleship that was never intended to be an actual revolution. Jesus disappointed so many people with his death, which seemed fruitless because it didn’t result in political regime change.
Now Jesus intended to show his resurrected self, the first fruit of his sacrifice, to his most intimate followers back in the place they lived before they were disciples.
Could it be that this is his reminder that this was a new beginning, that life without the man Jesus - normal life - was going in fact to be life continuously with Jesus? That moving on from his death was going to involve a greater commitment of their lives than they had made so far? That normal life wasn’t the old life; there was a new normal that would focus them like nothing before?
As we get back to our normal lives, it’s a good reminder. There really isn’t anything normal about a life lived for Jesus.
That gave me a little insight into a minor question this morning, as I read this from Mark 20:6-7: “‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, “He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”’”
I’ve sometimes wondered why Jesus sent his disciples to Galilee. Why not just meet them somewhere in Jerusalem, where they already were? Why not save them the steps; after all, the new church would start to grow in the capital city?
Today it looks to me like Jesus is sending them back to their normal lives, in a way. No, he didn’t intend for them to go back to fishing, but Galilee was where they lived when it all started. Galilee was where he called them away from their occupations and led them on a revolutionary course of discipleship that was never intended to be an actual revolution. Jesus disappointed so many people with his death, which seemed fruitless because it didn’t result in political regime change.
Now Jesus intended to show his resurrected self, the first fruit of his sacrifice, to his most intimate followers back in the place they lived before they were disciples.
Could it be that this is his reminder that this was a new beginning, that life without the man Jesus - normal life - was going in fact to be life continuously with Jesus? That moving on from his death was going to involve a greater commitment of their lives than they had made so far? That normal life wasn’t the old life; there was a new normal that would focus them like nothing before?
As we get back to our normal lives, it’s a good reminder. There really isn’t anything normal about a life lived for Jesus.