No one expected Jesus to be resurrected. Death was always a possibility—not a likely one if he was the Messiah—but no one expected the resurrection of Jesus. If you read the Gospels carefully you’ll notice two repeated comments that support this assertion. Fear is the consistent reaction of the disciples. Alarmed. Startled and frightened. They were not prepared for a dead man walking…
The second comment made by every Gospel writer except for John is that Jesus had to open their minds so that they could understand what had happened to him. Jesus had to take the disciples through the Scriptures so that they could understand the meaning of the resurrection. What had happened to Jesus and its significance were not self-evident—it defied conventional wisdom and yes, even religious belief.
We in the Christian community try to paint the resurrection of Jesus as such an obvious expectation of the Scriptures. No one saw it coming in Jesus’ day and time but everyone ought to read the Bible and get it right away. We portray the implications of Jesus’ resurrection as being so easy not only to accept but also to surrender one’s life before. No one who was there knew what to make of Jesus’ resurrection—how it changed their own lives, let alone the world. But everyone should understand how things are different, how we are different because of the empty tomb, how the world is different.
The boilerplate formula looks something like this:
Jesus’ resurrection = Jesus went to heaven = believe in Jesus = you’ll go to heaven.
Unfortunately this formula isn’t as self-evident in the Scriptures as one might think. More importantly, this formula falls way short of encompassing what Jesus commanded his disciples to witness to with their lives. This formula doesn’t even come close to what the Holy Spirit inspired the early church to proclaim by their existence.
We need to let go of slogans and formulas and spend some time reflecting on the dead man who is walking among us. We ought to listen and talk to the risen Christ rather than trying to resurrect the Church through the latest marketing campaign or evangelistic crusade. To know the risen Jesus is to know that resurrection life isn’t merely a future expectation, it is a present reality with implications for the future. Following the resurrected Christ is more than keeping one’s eye on heaven, it is witnessing and participating in the intersection of heaven and earth now. It is living into the future as it breaks into the present.
Living between the times has never been easy. Like all births, the birth of a new creation can be overwhelming---not always what you expect or what you are ready for. Nothing can be more frightening than when our formulas for life break down or when our frameworks for perceiving the world become too small. Old habits, old patterns, old lives—all die hard. Living by resurrection can be more challenging than we realize. Running scared is often more tempting than facing our fear.
We are being called to embrace our fear of a new creation rather than running scared from the promise of resurrection life. We are being challenged to discover what the risen Jesus reveals and the Holy Spirit continually affirms even now. Living the resurrection doesn’t begin tomorrow and it isn’t the life of tomorrow—
resurrection life begins today.
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