We live in a world that has been forever
changed. It was changed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
For all of our lives, and for two millennia
before that, we have lived in a world where the promised Messiah has come. He
has finished His battle with Satan and has crushed the Serpent’s head. Jesus
has ended the Old Testament and ushered in the New Testament in His blood.
Jesus’ resurrection is the indispensable foundation
of the Christian faith, its hope, of Christian love. St. Paul put it this way,
“if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then
they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only
we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ
risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1
Corinthians 15:17-20).
Nevertheless, we struggle daily with doubt.
Despair harasses us. And love does not come easy. Our struggle is to live in
the light of Easter—to internalize the reality of the resurrection.
The first step is to put yourself in the
shoes of its first witnesses. You are no different than those who lived through
the first Easter. They also struggled because, as St. John tells us, “As yet
they knew not the Scriptures, that He must rise again from the dead” (John
20:9).
They didn’t know that He was risen. The
clues were all there. The body was gone. The linen cloth was lying there. The
napkin was folded, in a place by itself. But still, they went home dejected.
They interpreted the clues to mean something
false. Mary could only conclude that “They have taken away the Lord from the
tomb” (John 20:13). Not realizing the true significance of what they
witnessed, they interpreted them as more evidence that Jesus’ enemies were
still prevailing. “They did it. They are in control. We don’t know what they
did to His body,” thought His disciples.
But they were wrong. And we know otherwise. For
us, these clues are signs of the resurrection. We cherish these artifacts, and
revel in the empty tomb. What a difference perspective makes! We know the
Scriptures. They did not.
And today, in our lives and in our circumstances,
we too are given clues that Jesus has deliberately left for us. We see His acts
in the world, every single day. World events are never random. The good and the
bad and the ugly—all events are of His making.
Jesus chose Judas, His betrayer, to be a
disciple. The Father gave Pontius Pilate the authority to crucify Him. God Himself
made Caiaphas High Priest, that year.
And the same remains true today. God is
directing current events. And God has brought you into the world precisely for this
moment. Whether God or you approve of what is happening, God remains in
control.
You don’t yet know HOW God “will work [them]
together for the good of those who love God” (Romans 8:28). But, because of
the resurrection of Jesus, you know THAT He will.
Future generations will look at us and say,
“How could they NOT rejoice?” Because they will see with hindsight.
We, on the other hand, live by faith. The
Scriptures interpret the clues and make us glad—even before God’s plan is clear.
If we are still in sorrow, bitterness and
anger, it is only because we—like the first visitors to the empty tomb—do not
yet know the Scriptures. Observing the world apart from the Scriptures will
make us misinterpret the clues and make us despondent.
So, let us consciously live in the light of
Easter. That means to believe God’s promises for you as surely as if they have
already happened. Because, in Christ, they have.
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