EXPECTING RESURRECTION

 

April 9, 2024

Romans 8:11

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

EXPECTING RESURRECTION

Do you expect resurrection,

When you get out of bed in the morning?

When you go to work?

When you sit down with a friend?

Many of us believe in Jesus’ resurrection, but do we believe that power is still at work in our world today? A while ago, Barbara Johnson wrote that "we are Easter people in a Good Friday world.” Does that make sense? In a world marked by death and darkness, hate and anger, and disappointment and grief, sounds like Good Friday themes don’t you think. I wonder is it possible to live as resurrection people in a world of brokenness and discord?

What would it look like to expect resurrection? Resurrection is the hope that out of death, life can emerge. If you've experienced betrayal or relationship wounds, expecting resurrection might look like trusting someone enough to let them in. If you've lost a job, a business, or a dream, expecting resurrection is choosing to begin dreaming again. In the broken, twisted, and heart-wrenching experiences of life, resurrection invites us to keep believing in life and working for beauty, justice, love and light to overcome (eclipse?) the darkness.

The Apostle Paul said that the same power that resurrected Jesus is now at work in us. Have you considered that this resurrection power is at work in you? We resurrection people can respond with love and peace because we have been healed and made whole (Made New), through Jesus Christ.

Over the next few devotions, together let us consider how to live as resurrection people by grasping the pattern of the first disciples of Jesus. Easter Day may be over, but there is so much more to discover about resurrection living. May God help us to understand and experience the power of the resurrection of Jesus.

May you “have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”

Ephesians 3:19