Nothing quite says “empty” like a school on spring break. Silent halls, unattended desks, and mess-free lunchrooms. It’s a fitting reminder as we celebrate the epitome of vacancy this week: the joy of the empty tomb.
Of course, like an empty school, the empty tomb is a bit incongruous. After all, a tomb absent the presence of death is failing to do its job, just as a classroom devoid of its students. But is that not where the joy begins?
Where the Joy Begins
This season, we celebrate victory over death: a healing of the greatest and most permanent brokenness that we, in our humanity, can possibly imagine. What a misstep that was for the enemy, assuming that death could lead to victory. It is life: resilient, compassionate, redemptive life that changes the world.
How incredible it must have been to witness this life. To have been one of the disciples who followed Jesus through his ministry and miracles, and who witnessed him as the risen Christ. How essential it was for them to have spent that time being formed by his teaching, and how necessary for them to go out and tell others of all that they had seen and heard. They did not remain only students. The resurrection sent them out, and the world was never the same.
Their Turn to Go
This week, this empty school is reminding me of another coming celebration. In just a few short months, this school year will end, and a new class of graduates will go out into the world. For these past years, they have been shaped in the presence of their Savior, growing in the midst of the great blessing of a Christ-centered, disciple-making education. Now, it’s their turn: to go out and make disciples. To live as Christ has taught them. What will these young women and men accomplish as they are commissioned for His service?
We don’t have to wonder. We only have to look at those who have gone before them.
Our alumni are already answering that question: in their families, their workplaces, their communities, and around the world. They are the living evidence that the formation that took place in these classrooms and chapels and hallways is bearing fruit, and it is a joy to behold.
That is my hope this Easter. To continue to bear witness to the life provided by the resurrection: young men and women sent out, equipped and called, transforming the world for the glory of God.
Christ did not remain in the tomb. His disciples did not remain only students. They went out. And so will ours.
I cannot wait to see what God does next.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”
1 Peter 1:3-4
About the Author
Michael Blankenship brings 10+ years of experience in Christian education to the role as Head of School at Lima Christian School. A product of Christian education himself, he is passionate about partnering with families and churches to disciple students to become Saints: people set apart to use their God-given talents in lives honoring Jesus Christ.
