What Jesus' Resurrection Means to Me

The world has never had a lack of thoughtful moral philosophers. Many have had useful and thoughtful insights. Many claimed to offer insights of spiritual significance. All are dead or will die ... except for one. Jesus was a great teacher, offered great insight into what humans really are, pointed to what He said was the right spiritual path, and claimed to do and be much more than just a great teacher. He claimed to be God, the Son of God. He claimed he would save from their sins as many as would believe in Him. He claimed to be the path to God and eternal life. Like all the other moral teachers, Jesus died - a horrible death. Unlike any other moral teacher (or any other human being), He didn't stay dead.

That's what sets Jesus apart from both the other moral teachers and delusional people who claim to be God! Jesus' resurrection was the seal of the authenticity of all He claimed to do and be! Jesus is God! Jesus had the authority and power to do all it took to save me from my sins, to reconcile me to God! Jesus' resurrection showed that life doesn't end with death, that for those united with him by faith will also be raised from the dead, to spend eternity with God. And Jesus did all this, not because I was such a wonderful person, not because I deserved it. Let me be clear … I did not deserve what Jesus did for me! Jesus did what He did simply because He loved me, and every other equally undeserving human being. Jesus' resurrection is the culmination of the process that gave me eternal life. Jesus resurrection is the pinnacle of 33 years of a life of proving that God, the Creator of the universe, loves me.

Jesus' Holy Week

In the hustle and bustle of daily life this year it almost escaped my attention that this week was “Holy Week”, the week culminating in Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. Some of my “stuff” was of some definite significance; some was just the stuff of daily life, lived and forgotten a month or a year later; some was what is sometimes called, “First World Problems”.

Jesus death and resurrection are the culmination and the radiating point for God's love for mankind, for me. And I got to thinking … what was Jesus' “Holy Week” like … what was some of the “stuff” He experienced and did for me?

Triumphal entry – much of the same crowd would be howling for His crucifixion later in the week

Entered the temple – had to clear out the corrupt hucksters cheating honest people who wanted to worship God

Left the temple, his disciples pointing out its magnificence – Jesus had to tell them of the doom that would come on Jerusalem and the temple

Week-long verbal traps and running verbal battles with the Jewish religious leaders who should have been the first to recognize and honor Him

Celebrated Passover with his disciples – knowing this was His last meal with them ... knowing one of those disciples would betray him

Gethsemane – the hours of mental anguish of knowing the physical agony what was coming … and being betrayed after His time of prayer

“Trial” before the Sanhedrin – knowing his disciples had fled, and that at that moment Peter was denying even knowing Him

Roman “justice” and torture – arbitrary, intentionally sadistic

Crucifixion – the most prolonged agony mankind then knew how to extract

Bearing the burden of, being separated from the Father because of, the world's sin ... my sin

Broken People in a Broken World

The idea that we humans are a broken people is familiar to Christians - whether under the term "original sin" or "total depravity". It's not something we love to contemplate - some non-believers revile or condemn Christianity for this teaching - but it's a reality we need to acknowledge in order to grasp the reality of who we are and of what people in this world truly are at heart. Monsters like Mao, Stalin and Hitler were extremes, not aberrations!

Less familiar is the truth that this world is also broken. After each creative act, God pronounced what He had just created “good”. Not just nice or pretty, but "good" ... not just from a human perspective, but good in the eyes of the almighty, righteous, God. When Adam sinned, it affected more than just him, it affected (maybe I should say "infected"!) all of his descendants. I already mentioned that. But at that time, God pointed out something more. He said that because of Adam, the ground, the Earth, was cursed. Jumping into the New Testament, this cursed state may be what Paul refers to when he speaks of all creation "groaning":

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. Romans 8:20-22, ESV

So we aren't just broken people living with other broken people - tough enough! We also are broken people living among broken people in a broken world!

So ... does that mean we're in a mess and should just throw up our hands in hopelessness and surrender? That isn't at all what Jesus told His followers to do! Jesus commanded us to take the message of redemption - words and action wherever we go. And to teach others to continue in that commission. We can be Jesus hands and feet and mouths in bringing redemption to whosoever will believe.

Accepting Change - Redemption and Restoration

Accepting change is not trivial, sometimes even difficult. Yet Christians are by definition a changed people. We should be used to the idea of people being changed, being redeemed from their former lifestyle. Some Christians do well with this. Others, to be honest, not so well. Maybe this is what Jesus was referring to in the parable of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20:1-16. 

 The other, sometimes sadder, side of this has to do with Christian brothers and sisters who fall in some very visible "serious" way (as if every sin isn't serious!). It's an old saying that the church is the only army that shoots its own wounded. Obviously, there are sins that necessitate church discipline, and there are some that do not. When church discipline is necessary, the purpose should be to correct and provide a path of restoration. Sometimes it seems like some people see discipline as excising some sort of spiritual cancer! I'll say it again ... the purpose is not to get rid of the one who has "fallen", but to restore that person to fellowship with God and His people.

God is gracious. He didn't redeem His people on a, "I'm going to give you one more chance, but if you blow it, ZAP!" basis. He redeemed us because He loved us, and His love doesn't change or diminish every time we blow it. So ... since God loves us even when we blow it, how much more should we love our "fallen" brother or sister? And want to see them restored to fellowship with God and His people?!

Stuff, Money and Human Nature

There is an old joke about a law of physics that says that, "Stuff expands to fill available space." I think there is a corresponding law of economics that says that, "Expenses expand to expend available income." Or in the case of those unprepared and/or unable and/or unwilling to manage money (e.g. lottery winners, suddenly rich athletes or politicians), "expenses" will expand faster than will income. Politicians, I also think, present a special case. They will spend money multiple times, call a reduced rate of spending growth a cut in spending, and use one-time "windfalls" to start programs that will continue for years to come, long past the time when the one-time money is consumed.

World Views Clash - Right and Wrong

Many modern political disputes come down to a collision of different world views. If one believes humans to be evolutionary accidents, the highest animal to have evolved so far, there is no basis moral absolutes, for saying, "This is right," or, "This is wrong," beyond a gun or a ballot box. Humans have no claim to be special, other than being the most advanced animal so far. Nor any basis for rights beyond a piece of paper that can be amended at will or tyrannically ignored. On the contrary, Evolution is a “might makes right” worldview. The Evolutionary imperative is survival of the fittest, and the fit demonstrate their fitness by doing whatever it takes to survive and reproduce (kill, steal, rape … or obey such “laws”, if that is what it takes to survive and reproduce).

If one believes, however, that humans and the universe are the creation of a Designer Who revealed some of His design principles so far as humans are concerned, a basis for right and wrong, for rights, is there. And Some One to whom one is ultimately answerable.

The Christian Balancing Act

Balance is something about which I've heard and thought quite a bit through the years. Early in my Christian walk I heard a teacher point out one such balance, between the Holy Spirit and the Word. He said that if one focused entirely on the Word (using one's intellect and ignoring the Holy Spirit) one would dry up. On the other hand, he said that if one focused entirely on the Holy Spirit (ignoring the Word), one would get weird. Without the Holy Spirit, one's intellect tends toward legalism, hair-splitting, brittleness and pride. The Holy Spirit helps one remember that God can't be squeezed into a box. Remembering how big God is and being dependent on the Holy Spirit to recognize truth and keep it balanced with love and in balance also keeps one humble. On the other hand, "relying on the Holy Spirit" for "truth" while ignoring the truth revealed in the Word ends up being an exercise in self-deception, where "truth" ends up being whatever feels right, sometimes with a pretextual veneer of a Scriptural justification.

Also fairly early in my walk with the Lord, I had two very different pastors. One had a very strong emphasis on what God wanted His children to become in maturity. The other had a similarly very strong emphasis on practical day to day Christian character and living. After being in those churches, each for quite a few months, I realized that this also was a sort of imbalance. The needed balance is to know both where God wants to take us and the practical daily things we need to learn and become to get there.

Another point of balance is among knowing, doing and being. It's like a 3-legged stool. If one leg is missing or short, you tip over. You have to know who you are in Christ to know what things are right and why to do those things. You have to do things God says are right, or your knowing and being have no real value (and may not be real at all). You have to be in relationship with God, or your knowledge and doing lose their fundamental motivation.

A balance that will be with and challenge every believer life-long is between our personal responsibility and God's "responsibility" to work in and through us. We cannot be passive in our personal and spiritual growth, thinking that God will do it all. Nor can we become and do all God wants us to be in just our own strength and ability. This sets up a continual tension, one which continually impacts everything we do.