CrossTalk: Live in the Light of Easter

 

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.