Easter Reflection

This Easter I asked myself the question "How do we, in a culture that is self-exulting, understand the resurrection?" Most of the time I feel like we need to think more about our vocation as the suffering servant more than as exalted kings. But we are called to live in, and be witnesses to, the resurrection. How do we do so without seeking an inheritance of our own?

This year the idea of the resurrection arrested me. I've been so conscious of our need to bear the burdens of others that the resurrection took me by surprise. The absurdity of that was quite convicting. So here are some thoughts about the resurrection that seek to avoid a pursuit of self-advancement, but also recognize the paramount significance of the resurrection. First of all, we must celebrate the things of God rather than the things of the world. It is easy to find joy in personal success, ambition, recognition, or possessions. But our joy is to be found in Christ and the Kingdom He came to establish. We celebrate the good news that we have life in Jesus, and we celebrate and prioritize the life of others before ourselves. We find joy in seeing the hungry fed, the outcast included, and the sick healed. And these things indeed bring more joy than the narrow tunnel of self-interest.

Another important consideration is that in the life of Christ humility came before exaltation. Suffering came before glory. Jesus came to serve, not to be served, and that vocation continued all the way to the point of his death. He had many opportunities to exalt himself, and the disciples were anxious for him to take the throne by force, but Jesus resisted because he came to the earth to bear the sin of the world on the cross. This was entirely intentional. And because Jesus submitted to the cross God the Father raised Him from the dead. Jesus did not raise himself - he humbled Himself so that God would vindicate Him. This means that as we follow Christ's path, we are to humble ourselves in the world - to become the least, the last, the servants - so that God will vindicate us. But we humble ourselves with the joy set before us that Christ resurrected and sits at the right hand of God, in victory over death. And we do this knowing that our humility and service to the world is what testifies to the life Jesus brings, and it is our humble service that feeds the hungry, includes the outcast, heals the sick, and gives hope to a broken world.

A New Leaf

"Telling stories" is such a buzzy thing these days, and I affirm it. I've been thinking lately about how neat it is to hear obscure stories of people who recorded their experiences throughout history, and I want I want to tell my story more, to give an account of what's happening in the world around me and how I engage with it. It's an act of sharing. I have mistakenly refrained from posts because I feel like I have to come up with something interesting or because I haven't made the time. But I'm going to start posting more because I think I'm supposed to share.

On a different note, this morning I was thinking that human beings, in that they are made in the image of God, are the clearest picture we have of God. The term "image" in Genesis is meant to invoke the idea of "representation." The other cultures of the Ancient Near East had man-made idols which were their "images" of God, but in the Biblical narrative the "image" is a human being. Thus, human beings are the representatives of God. We have corrupted that image with sin, but Jesus, the new Adam, fully employed what human beings were created to be - Jesus is the ultimate image of God.

In short, when we think of God, we should not think of abstract ideas, but rather we should look our fellow human being in the eyes and see God in them. And since Jesus was not tainted as all other human beings are, we can read about his life and see the "exact representation of His nature" (Heb. 1:3). In Jesus we see God, and everything we were meant to be.