Day Fourty: The Resurrection
At the center of the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:13-14, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.”
The resurrection is not a tack-on intended to be read as allegory or mythology. Rather, it is a central thread that holds all of Scripture together. Our resurrected king has conquered death, and as a result, life can never be the same. We must fight any temptation to allow Christ’s resurrection to become commonplace, unimportant, or of secondary principle in our lives.
Further, we must fight the temptation that Mary exemplifies in this passage. When Christ first encounters Mary, she is weeping. She is overwhelmed by the distress of her circumstances. She believes Jesus to be dead. But upon hearing that familiar call out her name, “Mary,” she is suddenly transformed. Her demeanor, her outlook, her perspective, and her understanding all changed in a moment.
We are tempted to live practically as if Christ has not risen from the grave. We are tempted to categorize the resurrection of Christ as a doctrine to know in our mind, while never truly living experientially in the power and the hope of our resurrected king. How was Mary’s life transformed upon seeing the resurrected Christ? I wonder how that moment in the garden shaped every future trial she would endure. In later years, as persecutions of Christians broke out across the Roman Empire and as others among her close friends were tortured and killed, I wonder how she clung to Christ’s resurrection.
We must permit regular reflection on Christ’s defeat of death that first Easter Sunday to shape our perspective on every decision and every moment of our lives.
When we are low and experience all the hardships of a world inundated with sin and sorrow, we must train ourselves to fix our gaze upon Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father.
When we are anxious and fearful, we must tell ourselves again the story of Easter Sunday, for in it, we are reminded that he who conquered death has all things under his control. And on that day, when our breath begins to fade when our eyes begin to dim, and we sense that our time has come to depart from this world, we can have a certainty that He who stands on the other side, who will welcome us into His eternal kingdom of love is none other than that resurrected King, that crucified Savior, that Son of God, that friend of sinners.
Yes, Christian, he went to death and back again to save you from Hell and to secure your eternity with Him. Magnify his name this Easter. Join the choirs of angels in celebration of our resurrected King. He who was killed is alive! “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen (Revelation 7:12).”
The resurrection is not a tack-on intended to be read as allegory or mythology. Rather, it is a central thread that holds all of Scripture together. Our resurrected king has conquered death, and as a result, life can never be the same. We must fight any temptation to allow Christ’s resurrection to become commonplace, unimportant, or of secondary principle in our lives.
Further, we must fight the temptation that Mary exemplifies in this passage. When Christ first encounters Mary, she is weeping. She is overwhelmed by the distress of her circumstances. She believes Jesus to be dead. But upon hearing that familiar call out her name, “Mary,” she is suddenly transformed. Her demeanor, her outlook, her perspective, and her understanding all changed in a moment.
We are tempted to live practically as if Christ has not risen from the grave. We are tempted to categorize the resurrection of Christ as a doctrine to know in our mind, while never truly living experientially in the power and the hope of our resurrected king. How was Mary’s life transformed upon seeing the resurrected Christ? I wonder how that moment in the garden shaped every future trial she would endure. In later years, as persecutions of Christians broke out across the Roman Empire and as others among her close friends were tortured and killed, I wonder how she clung to Christ’s resurrection.
We must permit regular reflection on Christ’s defeat of death that first Easter Sunday to shape our perspective on every decision and every moment of our lives.
When we are low and experience all the hardships of a world inundated with sin and sorrow, we must train ourselves to fix our gaze upon Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father.
When we are anxious and fearful, we must tell ourselves again the story of Easter Sunday, for in it, we are reminded that he who conquered death has all things under his control. And on that day, when our breath begins to fade when our eyes begin to dim, and we sense that our time has come to depart from this world, we can have a certainty that He who stands on the other side, who will welcome us into His eternal kingdom of love is none other than that resurrected King, that crucified Savior, that Son of God, that friend of sinners.
Yes, Christian, he went to death and back again to save you from Hell and to secure your eternity with Him. Magnify his name this Easter. Join the choirs of angels in celebration of our resurrected King. He who was killed is alive! “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen (Revelation 7:12).”
Posted in Lent
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