Easter Sunday, 2023 - The Unexpressed Message of "Christ is Risen!"

Christ is risen!

That’s the greeting we exchange on Easter Sunday. Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

Our greeting carries an unexpressed message: “and that changes everything!”

Death is for us an inescapable, unavoidable reality. It marks the end of life for us . . . at least, life as we know it . . . life in this physical, time-space realm. Death is often our greatest fear, our ultimate enemy. It destroys our body. It seemingly strips us of our life and our identity. Who are we in death other than someone who once lived, perhaps remembered by a few who loved us - a name on a forgotten headstone? Death robs us of everything we value and for which we have worked. It takes from us everyone we loved.

Except . . .

Christ is risen! Christ has broken the power of death . . . and that changes everything!

Christ has been raised from the dead and we with him! Death is no longer the end. It is but a transition into life in another, fuller dimension. Death is simply another birth experience. The apostle Paul used a financial term to speak of death. He described death as “gain” (Philippians 1:21) – interest and dividends paid from an investment. For Paul, dying meant receiving more of the life he experienced in Christ, with compounded interest. Death is no longer a loss; it is gain because Christ is risen!

Christ is risen! Death no longer has the last word. God does.

Christ is risen . . . and that changes everything! Even the “little deaths” we experience in life are transformed – all the defeats, failures, setbacks, losses, pain. These experiences no longer have the last word. They no longer define us. God works in them and through them for our good. God uses these painful experiences to mature us spiritually-emotionally-relationally.

The reality is, we cannot grow into maturity apart from these “little deaths.” They are a necessary component of growth. Such experiences, however, are not a guarantee of growth. They only provide us the opportunity to grow. Our openness to how God works in these experiences – that is, our response to them - determines whether we growth from them or not.

God’s power – the power that raised Jesus from the dead, Ephesians 1:19-21 - is at work in us through the Spirit. That power redeems and transforms our experience of life’s “little deaths,” using them to mature us into the likeness of Christ.

Christ is risen . . . and that changes everything . . . including the attitude and spirit with which we live! Trusting God’s faithful love and transforming work, we move beyond the anxiety and fear that inherently shape our lives. We live with joy and peace, with deep gratitude expressed in generosity, with confident expectancy of what God will do with life’s challenges and pain, with love for God expressed in love for others.

Christ is risen . . . and that changes everything!