It's Easter Monday- life returns to "normal". But do we want to wait a whole year to be reminded that death is dead, that Christ rose from His grave and we are one with him?
Yesterday we sang this Matt Maher Easter song -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mXeA0G_xKc
Christ is Risen
Let no one caught in sin remain
Inside the lie of inward shame
We fix our eyes upon the cross
And run to him who showed great love
And bled for us
Freely you bled, for us
Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave!
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave!
Beneath the weight of all our sin
You bow to none but heaven''s will
No scheme of hell, no scoffer's crown
No burden great can hold you down
In strength you reign
Forever let your church proclaim
Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave
Oh death! Where is your sting?
Oh hell! Where is your victory?
Oh Church! Come stand in the light!
The glory of God has defeated the night!
Oh death! Where is your sting?
Oh hell! Where is your victory?
Oh Church! Come stand in the light!
Our God is not dead, he's alive! he's alive!
Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave
Rise up from the grave...
This is the Easter message—as we celebrate Jesus' resurrection and our salvation, we are also reminded we have been made one with him and we have the choice to rise up from our sepulcher as well.
I have been a widow for almost ten years. My husband did not raise up from his death bed, his resurrection is unseen to our eyes. But the grave isn't just for the body. Worse, our spirit can be caught in the death pit of our own making.
Most of us have seasons of death and despair. Our soul's grave may be suffering and sorrow, disappointment and disillusionment, unforgiveness and bitterness. Our spiritual salvation comes but once; the completion, the perfection of our salvation is an ongoing process.
That process includes accepting the difficult seasons of our soul's journey, just as Christ accepted the death of his physical body. Our body will eventually die but Jesus came for the eternal, the life beyond the physical.
So we wait in our mental holes for our three days or weeks or years to be completed, our lessons learned, but we must remember— there is always the possibility of life at the end of all graves.
"We fix our eyes upon the cross
And run to him who showed great love...
No scheme of hell, no scoffer's crown
No burden great can hold you down ...."
Come awake, come awake! Come and rise up from your soul's grave. There is Life on the other side.
| The Risen Christ | |
AS YOU DID IT to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. Just as Jesus appeared at his birth as a helpless child that the world was free to care for or destroy, so now he appears in his resurrection as the pauper, the prisoner, the stranger- appears in every form of human need that the world is free to serve or to ignore. The risen Christ is Christ risen in his glory and enthroned in all this glorious canvas, stained glass, mosaic as Redeemer and Judge. But he is also Christ risen in the shabby hearts of those who, although they have never touched the mark of the nails, have been themselves so touched by him that they believe anyway. However faded and threadbare, what they have seen of him is at least enough to get their bearings by. -Originally published in The Faces of Jesus by Frederick Buechner |
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