The First Resurrection

Every year we Christians celebrate Holy Week and many people the season of Lent leading into it as well. The commercial side of the world celebrates the eggs, the candy, the new clothing, and the coming out after winter. For too many people, Christians and non believers alike, it is just the next holiday on the calendar.

There was a first Resurrection Sunday that came as a complete surprise to both friend and foe of Jesus. A wide diversity of emotions filled the people who were confronted by it in those first few hours. For every person who chooses to see the first Resurrection as a historical event, there comes that first Resurrection into their lives as well.

No events are recorded about the Saturday, the Sabbath, before the first Resurrection Sunday. The disciples were in hiding for fear the Jewish authorities would be searching for them as accomplices of Jesus. (John 20:19) A handful of women among their group had already gone to the market and purchased spices to cover the body of Jesus in the tomb as soon as the Sabbath was over, a method to treat the body before the later preparation for final burial. (Luke 23:55-56)

Judas Iscariot was dead. (Matthew 27:3-10) Peter was probably remembering his personal betrayal. (Luke 22:54-62) The others among the surviving eleven apostles remembered all too well their hasty abandonment of Christ when the soldiers came to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus had gone alone to his trial. (Matthew 26:47-56) The One who had called them to follow him and had been with them for nearly three years had had to go to his trial and execution in solitary humility.

Peter had stood at a distance in a courtyard. John had been with Mary the mother of Jesus at the crucifixion. (John 19:25-27) There were those few women who had been so close to the Master for all those years helping in whatever way they could. They stood watching among the crowd as the nails were driven in and the life was drained out.

On Saturday they all remembered where they had been, what they had done, during the previous twenty-four to thirty-six hours. They were frightened. They were ashamed. They were without hope. The dream was gone and they were back on their own.

Then came Sunday morning, the first day of the week and the first day of the new age of mankind. The tomb was empty. Jesus was alive! Emotions changed from despair to wonder to hope to celebration. (John 20:1-29) The first Resurrection changed the history of the world.

The first Resurrection still changes things in the life of a human being. Without Christ we are on our own pushed and pulled by the forces of the world over which we have little or no control. Hope is easily lost. Disappointment comes at every turn. Despair is waiting at the door ready to drag us down in the midst of our helplessness.

Then comes Sunday. Searching and searching we find nothing to give us a reason to face the future until we meet the Risen Lord. He shows us death is not the end. He shows us there is more to life than the rat race into which the world forces us. He shows us the depth of self-sacrificing love that is so much greater than the shallow waters of self-gratification. He gives us reason to hope.

The first Resurrection came once for the world. It is experienced again, fresh and powerful, in the life of every individual who is willing to surrender their own will, their own plan for life, to the One who came to make all things new. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (II Corinthian 5:17, NIV)

Death, Where Is Your Sting?

The Apostle Paul records in his first letter to the Corinthian Church a cry of victory over death as he celebrates the importance of the resurrection of Christ for all believers. (I Corinthians 15:54-57) The hope we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ provides the confidence we can have as we face death and the “glorious unknown” beyond it. The thought of death may leave us hesitant as we consider the total uniqueness of this experience all must meet, but fear does not need to be a part of it. Death no longer represents a defeat, but rather a dark curtain separating the dim light of this mortal life and the incomprehensible glory awaiting the children of God.

Within the last three weeks, I have watched my father move through that curtain. His passage was peaceful, and it ended a decades-long struggle to live with the pain of extensive arthritis. For the first time in perhaps 70 years, my father knows the promise we all have as recorded in Revelation 21:3-4 of a life free from pain and suffering. A believer and follower of Christ from childhood, Pop is now receiving, not a reward for a life filled with good deeds, but rather peaceful rest for a life surrendered to the love of the Savior who died for him.

This blog and several other responsibilities were put on hold during this time. To be able to spend the last hours of his life with him was more important than all else. I was sitting by his bed, my hand on his, when he took his last breath. He was an example to me in his life. His memory will remain so in the future.

Resurrection Sunday is approaching. Holy Week begins this Sunday with what is known as Palm Sunday. The last Sunday in Holy Week is called by the world Easter. We mark it as the day the empty tomb was discovered by a small group of women still in mourning after the crucifixion. (Luke 24:1-11) They thought the end had come. They were in for a big surprise!

The Apostle Paul said, “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (I Corinthian 15:19-20) What the women learned on that first Easter, the Lord’s Day, was we did have hope for something beyond death. Life did not come to an end. Life in Christ was only momentarily interrupted by death.

I don’t know what heaven will be like. I’m not even clear about our journey through death into the presence of God. The Bible seems to give us enough information for our faith and then asks us to leave the rest in the hands of God. What form we will have and what will occupy our thoughts (time will be left far behind) receives only the barest hints in scripture. The picture we have in scripture seeks to describe the indescribable in human terms. That always leaves us wondering, questioning, and debating. It is as if God didn’t think it was important to give us details for what was beyond our ability to understand.

In this I have confidence, however. My father of 63 plus years is no longer suffering. His body is no longer fighting to keep vital processes going. If I can hold to one image, it is the same promise that Christ gave the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43) As he faced the certainty of death, I could ask for no greater assurance for my earthly father. For him the sting of death was gone.

Those First Seven Words

You don’t have to be in church life long before you hear the depressing stories of congregations who lived and died with those famous last seven words, “We’ve never done it that way before” and their twin sister, “We have always done it that way.” Though I am a traditionalist, I know you cannot keep doing the same thing over and over and hope for different results. We know that as the definition of insanity.

Businesses cannot run the same way they did twenty years ago. Government cannot operate as if the world has not changed. Professionals cannot perform their businesses limited to the knowledge they acquired during college days. Change has to come, and it’s just as true for churches and individuals.

Recently I was reminded of the opposite of those death-guaranteeing words. These are the “first seven words”, and they can make all the difference for a business, a church, and an individual life. Those words are “Not my will but yours be done.”

When businesses don’t change to meet the new market demands, the result is often death whether swift or slow. Preferences change. Needs change. Business must adapt even when it knows its product is still necessary and the best available. A new language has to be learned and spoken.

When a church falls into the trap of believing its traditions are equal to its message, it has moved onto the path of self-destruction. Preservation of the past becomes more important than discipleship and redemption. Change is seen as a threat to what is considered most sacred, the church family story. Allegiance to the sacred traditions becomes the standard for church membership.

Lest we bash churches as a whole beyond reason, we must remember congregations are not nameless entities. They are people with strong beliefs about what is right and proper both for the sacred and the profane. Most often these attitudes are as visible in personal life as they are on the church stage.

I joke about remembering the good, old days which seem to get better the older I become. Our memories become selective as we think about the joys and blessings of a past age as we compare it to the present. Families spent more time together. We moved with less hurry and worry. Life was simpler and offered more occasions to enjoy what the world offered.

Then we remember days that had temperatures in the 90’s and humidity readings even higher with no air conditioning. In the winter we remember going to the pond to cut ice ten inches thick so the cattle could get a drink in the sub-zero weather. Upstairs in the old farmhouse the air would be cold enough you went to bed with three quilts over you and your jeans beside you so they would be warm when you got up the next day for school.

I learned to appreciate water lines that went underground and didn’t freeze, a hay baler that created bales to be carried by the tractor instead of me, and a gas furnace that kept the entire house warm. We laugh about the changes that made life richer and more productive for us today. We need to think about how we do church and live our lives before God in the same way.

Jesus knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed those special words to his Father after nearly three years of teaching, preaching, and healing all of which called for change. (Matthew 13) He had spent three years getting close to a group of people he said were no longer his servants, but his friends. (John 15:12-17) He was about to give all that up for a cross and the burden of the sins of the world. Yet he could still say, “Not my will but yours be done.” (Matthew 26:36-46)

We each have our traditions. Many of us attend churches where we can enumerate their non-negotiable patterns of sacred practice. Renewal and revival, so desperately needed in our churches and our personal lives, need to begin with that very serious prayer, “Not my will but yours be done.”

Somebody Always Wants to Fight

Several years ago I spent ten days in Ukraine on a mission trip. Driving through its beautiful rural countryside and then serving in a small community, I decided there were few places on earth that could claim your heart so fast. The beauty of the land was reflected in the hearts of the people.

For the last fifteen hundred years or so, Ukraine has known little freedom. Its people have been under the thumb of empires to the east and the west throughout the centuries as the foreigners traded power grabs. The Ukrainian people always seemed to be the losers. With few natural barriers in their country, the open land served as an unobstructed highway for one invading army after another. Now they are facing it again after less than 25 years of self-rule.

The list of “hot spots” in our world today would more than fill this page. Nation against nation gets the big headlines. Tribe against tribe comes in a close second. Then of course there is faith against faith, the haves against the have-nots, the powerful against the weak, and ultimately those who just disagree. No matter where you look, it seems there is somebody who is more than willing to fight to settle the issue. Why can’t we just get along?

I detest that naïve, polly-anna question. As long as one person has an opinion of what is right and what is wrong and another person has a different right-wrong perspective, we will have discussions that degenerate into disagreements and ultimately into fights. Call it what you will, but sin defined as a self-righteous stranglehold on truth can usually be seen as the culprit.

This problem exists on the international scene. It also exists at the very personal level of one person relating to another. In that setting the disagreement gets settled in the classic, “I’m right and I’ll bust your nose to prove it!” As we all know this proves nothing when it comes to what is true. It merely reflects the fact that words have failed and the muscle in the arm has trumped the muscle between the ears.

The Apostle Paul says we should make the effort to live at peace with those around us. (Romans 12:18) He recognizes that making peace has to be a two-sided affair. Unilateral peace only goes so far. He continues, however, with the idea revenge cannot be the answer. That belongs to God alone. Our response must take a different form. (Romans 12:19-21)

Jesus gave us a better way to handle our conflicts. In Matthew 18 he outlined a series of steps that were meant to lead to open communication, mutual understanding, and finally reconciliation. We are sinful human beings with limited perspectives and egos always eager to assume the exalted position. These must be acknowledged and overcome so that the goal of reconciliation can have a chance of being reached.

These are some guiding thoughts for striving for peace between individuals and within groups.

·         Listen to reach full understanding of the other perspective

·         Find common ground for agreement

·         Identify areas outside the critical core of non-negotiable absolutes

·         Determine areas allowing for mutually acceptable compromise

·         Seek to disagree in agreeable fashion

·         Give others the benefit of the doubt

·         Give others a second chance when mistakes are made and admitted

·         Be ready to forgive

Even with all this there are still the black and white issues of right and wrong. These are grounded in the foundation of our absolutes. Jesus had them. He expects his followers to have them. He did not hesitate to take a whip into the Temple and clean house. (Matthew 21:12-13) At the same time he could disagree with ritual demands and still feel he needed to go along with them because the issue wasn’t worth the fight. (Matthew 17:24-27)

Jesus got his non-negotiable absolutes from the nature of his Father as should all his followers. This doesn’t make settling conflicts necessarily any easier on the personal or the international level. It is, however, where we are called to start and end.