Can you think of a moment in your life when everything changed because of a single event? I felt the need, the compulsion, to obey every traffic law, to keep my hands perfectly at ten and two on the steering wheel. I felt the passion to get back to work because I had responsibilities. Everything changed for me on November 12, 2000 because it was on that day that I become a dad, and my life has forever been changed.
It can be a crisis or point of celebration, but we find these moments in life that have the impact that changes everything. On Easter we celebrate the moment of all moments, and it is because of the moment of resurrection everything is different. We are still experiencing the impact of that point in history. CS Lewis said it this way:
"The New Testament writers speak as if Christ's achievement in rising from the dead was the first event of its kind in the whole history of the universe. He is the 'first fruits,' the pioneer of life,' He has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because He has done so."
However, sadly, I believe many of us who claim to believe in the resurrection still have not fully embraced the implications of Jesus' victory. We still live as captives when we have been set free. Like the massive elephant that remains tethered to a stake in the ground that even a child could remove, we are not living in the freedom that is ours.
Repeatedly we live as children in fear of death. I don’t mean fear of death because we are not hoping in an after life, and I don’t mean the natural fear of the experience of dying. I mean we fear death in the sense of something that we call life would be lost forever. We are anxious, worried, striving, selfishly focused people striving to protect ourselves from the object of our fear:
we fear the death of a dream
we fear of the loss of a career
we fear the death of a relationship
we fear the death of being alone
we fear the death of being controlled by another
we fear the death of our freedom
we fear the death of our reputation
we fear the death of our image
we fear the death of financial freedom
we fear the death of not getting into the college we want
we fear the death of being exposed
we fear the death that comes with shame
we fear death early and we fear death often
In that place of fear, we cry out for a miracle. We hear the truth that Jesus has the authority over death, and we think good news:
Jesus can restore my image, Jesus can fix my relationships, Jesus can alter my reputation, Jesus can be my financial advisor, Jesus can bless me with my dreams. We ask Jesus to calm our fear because we do not want the death of the thing we love. Jesus become the tool to get our needs met.
The problem is this:
Jesus did not come back to life to just do a miracle in your career advancement. Jesus came to resurrect the mission of your life.
Jesus did not come back to life to do a miracle in your marriage but to empower you to be an agent of grace through countless exchanges of forgiveness and mercy with your spouse or friends.
Jesus did not come back to life to just do a miracle to address your self esteem but to give you a new way to be alive where you are no longer a slave and consumer of other people's opinions but rather a participant in God’s purposes of redemption in the people and world around you.
Because he lives:
you have power for gaining victory over sin
you have power for the work of the Kingdom
you have hope for your future
you can have confidence for every circumstance.
May our lives, in good times and bad, reflect the truth of the response to the traditional Easter greeting, He has risen. May our lives demonstrate that “He has risen indeed.”
