Random Resurrection Thoughts

Sometimes we want to capture something–some grand thing or idea–using the most amazing communication techniques and images, and yet we are just unable to do it. I struggle every year to come up some grand and wonderful idea to explain the Resurrection of Jesus. The reality is that the Resurrection of Jesus, while about as far as you can get from the mundane, is mostly experienced in the mundane. And that’s what really matters, and that is actually wonderful news!

Why is it easier to talk about the death of Jesus than it is to talk about his resurrection? Is it because we are so familiar with death? We see it daily and are constantly reminded of it. But how many of us have seen someone rise from the dead? We have such limited experience (make that no experience) with bodily resurrection, so we are limited in our understanding and our illustrations.

Which pushes all this back into the realm of faith. And what about the faith of Jesus? Didn’t he have to have a lot of faith that his Father would raise him from the dead? We don’t talk a lot about the faith of Jesus while he was in the flesh, but think about it. How could he do what he did, if it was not predicated on faith–ultimately the faith that his Father would raise him from the dead. Faith that God’s words are true.

That’s the kind of faith we are called to have. It’s interesting to think about having never seen a bodily resurrection and to then hear these words from Hebrews (11:1):

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

When do have faith, and when we embrace the Story of Jesus (through baptism’s re-enactment of that story - see Romans 6), then we live a resurrected life, a life that says we believe in the end we will be raised to live forever.

That’s kinda interesting to think about in light of what Jesus says in John 5 (25, 28-29). He speaks of 2 resurrections; one now and one later.

“I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.”

“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”

The reality of the second resurrection–the one from the grave–dictates how I live my life in the mundane and ordinary. I want to rise above all the junk that won’t last.