This past week a friend asked me, 'How could Jesus' death be considered a sacrifice, if he knew he'd get it all back 3 days later?' To my friend, that sacrifice didn't seem like much of anything. I pondered his question; I considered his point. We talked it through, and I've thought more since, and though there is a lot to unpack here the thing I keep coming back to is this:
The sacrifice was necessary, in order for there to be
Resurrection.
Resurrection. If you join me in my ponderings and roll that word around on your tongue and through your mind for awhile, you might start to realize as I have: This is kind of a strange thing. Resurrection? What, exactly, does that
mean?
Now, I know the Sunday School answer, so that's where I start: In the resurrection Jesus overcame death, and provided a way for us
all to overcome death.
In my daily living I'm
counting on that to be true, but not just because I want to worship with the angels once my body has given out on me. I'm counting on it, because, can I get a witness? Sometimes, our daily living is just
rife with death, everywhere. Broken people, broken hearts, broken bodies, broken minds. Broken relationships. Hurt, confusion, difficulty, fear. Poverty of spirit, despair, hopelessness. I see it on faces, I hear it in the stories they tell, and--sometimes--I just have to think: what. the.
heck.
But for: Resurrection.
Because resurrection is death in all its forms,
overcome.
I've lived the life of death myself, years of darkness, deep within a cave of lost confusion. And then, Jesus showed up with His Resurrection Power. Beyond the Sunday School answer, with healing in his wings, His Deep called to
my deep. And I learned: When Jesus overcame death, he did more than say 'I'll get you into heaven some day'. He said: I want you to have LIFE, and to have it to the full. On earth, as it is in heaven. Whole and healed and loved by me, with laughter, and with joy, even in the midst of difficult realities.
And He opened up a whole new world; He resurrected
me.
Though those lost years can still make me cry when I think about them, this Easter Sunday I reveled in the reality of Resurrection Power: With laughter and with joy, with deep and powerful gratitude, I spent the day with the people that bring me life.
There was church in the morning, time to hear Truth and respond in worship and praise, to sit with those people I've been given to walk through life with, to have little love bursts best described by Sarah as she cuddled up next to me: 'Mom, aren't you glad I started piano lessons, so we could have Lauren?' We adults smiled over the heads of the children surrounding us and affirmed, yes dearest girl, we are
glad.
We returned home to make some Easter kebabs,
enjoying the sunshine and the firstfruits of the garden,
taking time for deep and heartfelt conversation,
dwelling in peace, and in luxurious time.
Then, I returned to my own home,
for an Easter pizza party with friends.
Our door remained open as people came and went,
and the sounds of laughter, serious gaming,
and just being together echoed through our rooms.
We connected,
we ate,
we laughed,
we loved.
I marveled at my own levels of laughter and joy,
as I rejoiced in the people who have spoken so much into my life;
those who have been around for awhile,
and the new relationships that have blossomed recently.
Because here's the thing about Resurrection living:
It always comes back to the people that Christ came to save in the first place.
It always comes back to love.
It always comes back to the depth of the sacrifice,
for the fulfillment of the promise:
Life, to the full.
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