Christ’s resurrection

Christ’s resurrection
By The Post
Sun 24 Apr. 2011, 04:00 CAT

Today, Easter Sunday, Christians all over the world will remember God’s love and compassion as Easter is celebrated. Easter is the time when above all other times, we pause to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

At Easter, we rejoice that God raised Jesus from the dead. Now the light of resurrection pierces the darkness of death, revealing the newness of eternal life.

Death does not have the last word, it does not define us now. Christians are defined by resurrection and new life, new life in Jesus Christ.

The resurrection of Jesus brings joy to those who mourned him and hope to Christians through the centuries that God is restoring fractured relationships and transforming fear to peace.

May the joy of Easter and the peace of God fill this nation.

Christ’s resurrection speaks of God’s promise of life in abundance, which does not allow death to have the final word, and which pushes back the darkness with the flame of the Gospel.

Death was not the end of Jesus’ story.

In his bodily resurrection, he broke the power of death and sin which kept us disconnected from God.

The feast of Easter is a time of great joy for Christians as they celebrate the message of hope brought to them by the death and the resurrection of their Lord.

The disciples did not believe that Jesus would rise from death, that light would outshine darkness, that hope would triumph.

The disciples were not giddy optimists sitting by the tomb in anticipation of a resurrection.

Indeed, when informed by an angel that Jesus had risen, the response of some of the women was to flee the proof of hope, and to keep the story to themselves.

Yet, 2,000 years later, we know that story because hope cannot be hidden by fear.

Hope doesn’t work that way. One of the themes of the Easter story is that the resurrection of Jesus gives surprising hope, a hope that emanates from unlikely places, that rises up and transforms us.

Despite the oppression that the shadows of life can bring, when we read the Bible, we cannot escape the light and hope that Easter brings.

An important message from this feast is Christ’s boundless love and care.

The Lord Christ did not have to suffer and be ridiculed at the hands of his own creation.

Yet he was willing to bear all of this injustice without complaint, to grant us victory and eternal life through his resurrection.

We see the Lord’s care in how he dealt with those in deep need.

The Lord went out of his way to meet the Samaritan woman in the heat of the day, to guide her with gentleness to repentance.

He did not judge her for her sinful life, but praised her for telling the truth and cleansed all the dirt from her heart. This is what pleases the Lord; to do the will of the Father who sent him.

Our Lord had deep compassion on the paralytic man who was infirm for 38 years. He had no one to care for him and said to the Lord, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool…” (John 5:7).

Though many passed by this poor soul and were not willing to extend a hand of help, the risen Lord here sets us the example of what it means to search for the souls who “have no man.”

There are many that desire to know Christ’s love, care and salvation and yet very few are willing to take on this work and reap the harvest for Christ.

The Lord said to his disciples, “Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” (John 4:35).

In healing the paralytic, the Lord does not rebuke him, despite being fully aware of his sinful life, but heals him with his love and gently warns him saying, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you” (John 5:14).

We need to learn this important lesson from the Risen Christ in how to deal with each other with love and compassion.

The Lord says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). The message of salvation and the resurrection is about a caring and loving God who wanted to redeem His people, that they may not perish but live with him eternally.

If this is how our Creator deals with His sinful creation, should we not learn from our Master and deal with our fellow humans in the spirit of love and compassion?

When the Lord saw the pain and suffering of Mary and Martha at the death of their bother Lazarus, he sympathised with them and “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Then the Lord cried out saying, “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:43).

Although Lazarus had been dead for four days, Christ reveals that he has power over death through his glorious miracle and that he is truly God.

Christ’s compassion was revealed at all times and to all, to individuals as well as to the multitudes.

He persevered and taught the people many things pertaining to the Kingdom while also caring for their earthly sustenance, feeding the multitudes on several occasions.

We have a duty to do good whenever we can and spread the good news of the Risen Christ to all creatures and nations, through our lives and examples.

The grace of All-Good and Loving God has enabled us this year once again to cross over the sea of Great Lent and to reach, through the awesome Passion of Holy Week, the redeeming triumph of the resurrection of Christ.

We live the resurrection of Christ, not simply as an event but rather as a continuous state of being.

We are called to resurrect ourselves from the life of passions and vest into the new life of the Risen Christ.

The Risen Lord offers hope for every single one of us, since “death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor.15:54).

Let us pray to the Risen Christ to teach us to love and care as he did, and to be compassionate towards each other.

Wishing you all a blessed and joyful feast of the resurrection and that this day may fill your lives with hope.