As the Easter holidays (almost certainly) feel like a distant memory, and you find yourself back in the trenches of another school term, we all might need to be reminded that as Christian teachers and church school leaders, the resurrection is meant to change everything.
It changed everything for the early disciples. After watching the one they’d given everything to follow being nailed to a cross, the ground under their feet... well and truly gave way.
Hurting, scared and confused; they scattered.
The gospel writers describe them hiding and scared behind locked doors (John 20:19), disappointedly upping and leaving the city, (Luke 24:13) and returning to their old, more familiar, safe and predictable lives as fishermen (John 21:3).
And where does the Risen Lord go - after having conquered the grave and dealt the death blow to death itself? Not to the political and religious rulers of his day. But to this grieving, confused, disappointed and disillusioned band of disciples.
Jesus seeks them out, gently and intentionally; revealing his true identity, and in so doing powerfully reminding and restoring them to theirs. He breaks bread with two deserters on the road to Emmaus, repeats the same miraculous catch of fish as he did when he first called and commissioned Peter as a fisher of men. He even invites doubting Thomas to touch his scarred yet resurrected hands and side, before pouring his spirit out on them all.
I don’t know what the Summer term holds for you and your school. My guess is it already is and will be a mixture of joys and challenges, privilege and pressure. There may well be crisis moments and times when you're confronted with your own limitations and perhaps, failings.
In those moments, I encourage you to look to the cross, and draw comfort and confidence in the knowledge that if God did not abandon us on his darkest day, he won’t forsake us on our difficult ones. Moreover, I encourage you to remember that because of the resurrection, we are a people of great hope.
For in the words of St. Julian of Norwich “The worst has already happened and been repaired”.