risen Lord
Keeping a Resurrection Perspective
By Linda Rex
April 16, 2023, 2nd Sunday | Resurrection or Easter—These past two weeks I have felt as though those of us who live in the Nashville area have been hit over and over with a ton of bricks. And not only us, but I think also of Mississippi, Iowa, Alabama, and other places around the world which have been torn apart by catastrophic events.
When we’re in this place of suffering, it is easy to lose our resurrection perspective. When all we can see and all we are experiencing is the brokenness of humankind and our planet, to keep our attention on things above seems pie-in-the-sky and unrealistic. Give us answers to our suffering and our problems—not sympathy!
Having a resurrection perspective, though, is not about ignoring the suffering and evil in this world. No, it is about empathy—about entering into that suffering and evil to the point that Jesus was willing to allow himself to be crucified, buried, and left for dead. It is about being willing to meet you and me at the place of our worst, to become sin for us, to bring us up to be with Jesus in his best—the resurrection and ascension.
Think of Peter, who bragged that he would be with Jesus until the end. But then, in the moment of crisis, he denied Jesus three times, even to the point of heated cursing and swearing, saying that he didn’t even know Christ. In one gospel, we see Jesus at that very point looking across the courtyard to catch Peter’s eye. Jesus knew exactly what he had done, and Peter was devastated.
Can you understand the difficulty Peter faced as he coped with Jesus’ death? If Jesus was gone forever, he had no way of making right the horrendous thing he had done. If Jesus was truly dead after his crucifixion, then how would Peter be able to live with himself. But he had seen Jesus on the mountain when he was transfigured. On Sunday morning as he and John heard the news “Jesus is risen” and ran to the tomb, he saw that the graveclothes were laying where they had been left as Jesus arose. What hope must have burned in Peter’s heart!
To have a resurrection perspective is to see beyond the suffering, to see beyond the grave. To have a resurrection perspective is to believe that we are not abandoned or left to fend for ourselves. To have a resurrection perspective is to understand that this life is not all there is—we are created for life in relationship with Father, Son, and Spirit—even now, and in the new heavens and earth which are to come.
To have a resurrection perspective means that we realize life is painful and difficult, but God is taking it and using it to form us into the image of Christ, as we respond to the gentle presence of his Spirit. And to have a resurrection perspective is to realize that we are never alone. God is with us through Christ in the Spirit, active in our lives and in our world, as we participate with him in his redemption and restoration of all things.
This is why we are called by God to be witnesses—to testify to the reality of the risen Lord. If our focus is on our suffering or on everything that is going wrong, we will find our lives and this world a very dark place in which to live. We will be burdened by and battered by the brokenness and darkness of the world in which we live. But as we encounter this brokenness and darkness, we are reminded to turn to Jesus, to bring our concerns to him, and to invite the Spirit to show us ways in which we can participate with Christ in his redemptive work. We can keep our resurrection perspective, allowing it to inform how we approach our suffering and our response to evil and darkness, rather than being overcome by it.
Thank you, Father, for being in Christ as he suffered and died for us. Thank you, Jesus, for not leaving us orphans, but rising from the grave and coming to us in your Spirit, so we need never be alone. Grant us the grace to keep a resurrection perspective in the midst of all this life throws at us, remembering you are a risen Lord! Amen.
“But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: ‘Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words.’ … ‘This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.” Acts 2:14, 32 NASB
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:3–9 NASB
[Printable copy: https://newhope4me.files.wordpress.com/2023/04/olitkeeping-a-resurrection-perspective.pdf ]
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Unless I See
By Linda Rex
April 24, 2022, 2nd Sunday in EASTER—Do you ever do that thing where when you’re expecting a visitor, you start tidying up everything in the house? Pretty soon you’re checking the bathrooms and the bedrooms to be sure there’s no clutter or dust. You’re fluffing the pillows on the couch, straightening the dining room chairs, and wiping off the kitchen counter one more time. And then the doorbell rings.
What I find interesting about social media and our online presence today is that we often do the same thing, only in a different way. I’ve been trying to go through things at home, so I can begin downsizing and packing, and I have empty boxes laying around and stuff scattered here and there. But when I was joining a Zoom meeting today, all of a sudden, I decided that the boxes had to be moved around so that my online line presence didn’t look like a stockroom.
It is rather distressing to me to realize how managed and manipulated what we see and hear online really is nowadays. It’s getting harder and harder to hear the quiet, sincere voices of the loving truth-tellers. We can’t really discern the hearts and minds of those we are listening to, or whether what they are showing us or telling us hasn’t been doctored or altered in some way. Perhaps they spent hours preparing for the “white glove” test rather than simply being real and honest with us.
There is a hunger I am beginning to sense in people for genuine, healthy community and relationship. I’m not certain that many of us know or remember what that even looks like. What does it mean to love and be loved in the way God created us to exist as image-bearers of the divine? Whatever it means, it must include the ability to see what is unseen—the heart and mind of the living God at work in us and with each of us by his heavenly Spirit. And that happens in the context of face-to-face relationship.
I think this was the cry of Thomas’ heart when the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” Jesus’ death was a real event—a truly graphic and horrendous human experience. What outcome could there be from a crucifixion other than a painful, arduous death? And the body that was taken off the cross was lifeless and cold—and the tomb Jesus was laid in was sealed shut. There was an end to all that the disciples had experienced together with the Messiah.
Thomas could not wrap his mind around the possibility that there could be a different outcome from what he experienced. The disciples’ words, that they had seen Jesus alive, must have seemed like a doctored-up story created out of their vain imaginations. “I must see his hands and his side myself,” he told them, needing to have something tangible he could touch and see, so he could know for certain that Jesus was indeed alive.
We can take comfort in the way that Jesus handled Thomas’ reluctance to believe what the disciples were saying about their experience. Jesus knew Thomas well, and understood his heart, as he was the one who bravely volunteered to go with Jesus to Jerusalem to die with him, when Jesus was going there to raise Lazarus from the dead. And Thomas was the one who, when Jesus told the disciples they knew the way he was going, asked where that way was, since he didn’t think they did know where Jesus was going. Jesus’ memorable reply was, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” He understood this disciple’s inquisitive mind, which wanted to be certain about the details and to really comprehend what was going on.
We find the second Sunday after the resurrection the disciples were once again behind locked doors in the upper room of the place they were staying. All of a sudden, once again, there was Jesus in their midst. But apparently, he was there for a specific reason. He went directly to Thomas and addressed his doubts, showing him his hand and his side, and inviting him to touch the wounds he had received. Thomas, being overcome in that moment with the reality of who Jesus was, could only say, “My Lord and my God!”
Let me ask you this: Have you ever had a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know what it is like to know for certain that he is a risen Lord—that he is real, and alive, and interested in a personal relationship with you? Do you know what it means to live your life knowing that he is present and real by the Holy Spirit, and that he is aware of everything you think, feel, say, or do—and loves you completely and entirely in the midst of it all?
I can tell you about my own experiences with the Lord Jesus Christ, but how do you know whether or not they are genuine? Perhaps it is good to have the outlook of Thomas—the willingness to ask for yourself whether or not the resurrection really did happen. “Unless I see”—I myself. I must come to terms with the reality that God has come, as God in human flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ, has lived a genuinely human life, died at the hands of the people he came to save, and rose again from the grave. I need to ask the difficult question: Do I believe? What do I believe about Jesus Christ?
The good news is that Jesus is ready and willing to enable us to know the truth. He wants us to see and to believe. Now, I don’t believe he is going to show up like he did back then with Thomas, but by the Spirit, Jesus has ways of showing up that we cannot dismiss without real effort. He’s not waiting for us to prepare ourselves or our lives for the “white glove” test. He’s already cleaned house for us. He’s inviting us to open ourselves and our lives up to his presence—to tell him the truth—Lord, I need to see. Lord, I want to see. Lord, open my eyes, my mind, my heart—so I may see and believe.
Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows exactly what it will take for us to see and to believe. And he is at work right now, doing his best to meet us at that place. And he is ready to, by his Spirit, awaken us to faith, a faith that is his gift to us, as he draws us into a face-to-face relationship with God which is ours now and on into eternity.
Heavenly Father, how blessed we are in the sacred gift of your Son and your Spirit—life in relationship with you now and forever! Bless us anew with the grace to see the spiritual realities, to daily see and experience the presence of our risen Lord by your heavenly Spirit. Amen.
“So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.’ But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’ After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.’ Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” John 20:19–31 NASB
[Printable copy of this blog: https://newhope4me.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/unless-i-see.pdf%5D
Seeking the Living Among the Dead
By Linda Rex
April 17, 2022, Resurrection Sunday | Easter—Do you ever feel like you are just going through the motions? That life is one boring, uninteresting routine—like you are enslaved by the everyday, uninspiring demands of your existence?
I enjoy reading a good book. I found one the other day at the library I thought I might enjoy reading and I took it home to read. The upshot of the book was that someone who felt like they were going through the motions, who was living an inspired, boring existence, discovered through a chance meeting, an opportunity to turn their life around. As they followed the guidance of their mentor, their life began to change for the better, bringing them to a new place of invigorating, creative life and relationships.
What is interesting to me is how this whole book was based on one person’s ability to do what is needed to make the changes in their life. Like most self-improvement programs, it required persistence, facing challenges, and dealing with failure. It was fully based upon the law of cause and effect—that if the main character took certain steps, then certain things would happen. I felt the only true realistic positive through the whole process was the author showed that meaningful and lasting changes in the main character came about within the context of caring relationship. And that, I believe, is the key.
Like I said, I love to read. I enjoy looking at books, turning their pages, and reading the things people have been inspired to write. Often, books have been my mentor, helping me to see things about life, about myself, and about God that I would not have seen otherwise. Many times, books have inspired me to make significant life changes or have been a part of the process God put me through to change my understanding of who he is and what he is doing in me and in the world around me.
But a book can only do so much. Even Jesus told listeners that they searched the Scriptures trying to find life, but they would not come to him to actually find it. There is a profound difference between knowing about God and reading about God, and actually living life in relationship with him. It is possible to read about how to live a good life but never actually live it or experience it because we have never personally encountered the God in Christ who by the Spirit is our life.
Imagine growing up in a culture where once a week you gathered with friends and family to listen to the reading and singing of your sacred scriptures. As a child, you would be memorizing (hopefully) long passages from the psalms and maybe even the genealogical listings of your forefathers. You would observe the ancient rituals ceremonially, gathering weekly and in special seasons with family and community for the special days that recall your culture’s history, memorializing its great events.
But then, one day, you meet someone who is supposedly the fulfillment of your culture’s greatest expectations. He calls you to follow him, so you, thrilled at the privilege, drop everything to follow this messiah and to learn from him. You listen to his parables, follow his instructions even when they don’t make sense, and begin to grow attached to him. But then he begins to say that he is going to die—and he does, horribly, at the hands of those who should have honored and followed him.
What about all of those years of studying, those years of memorizing passages, or those years of following this man? Did any of that change you? If you are different, what made you different? Are you different because of all that you read, or maybe a bit different because of the days spent in relationship with that special man?
Early on that Sunday morning, the ladies gathered at the tomb where Jesus had been laid, amazed that the stone had been rolled away. They were astonished at the angels they saw there. But more amazing was what the angels said: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” They were encouraged to remember what had they learned all those years they spent with Jesus. What had he told them? What had he said about what the Scriptures predicted would happen to him?
What we celebrate on this special day is the spiritual reality we serve a risen Lord. He is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) No matter how humdrum or routine our existence may seem at the moment, no matter how dead our life may seem to be—there is always hope for something better, because Jesus is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) Our relationship with Jesus Christ is unimpaired by anything in our world that may seek to hold us captive to old ways of thinking and behaving. Our risen Lord injects into every circumstance the potential for transformation, healing, and wholeness.
It is significant that Peter, as he denied Jesus the third time, looked across at Jesus, who caught his eye. In that moment, he was struck by the reality of the truth of what Jesus had told him. In that moment, what mattered? All those years of studying? Or that relationship in which Jesus, who knew Peter down to his soul and knew beforehand what he would do, still loved him. Christ still believed that Peter would turn around and would become what Jesus believed he could become. But it would be in relationship with Jesus—as Peter met him after the crucifixion on the shore of the lake and reminded him of his calling, and as the promised Holy Spirit fell on them all at Pentecost and Peter stood up to preach.
What changes would you like to see in your life? It is good to make the effort to learn and to grow. It is good to read the Scriptures and to memorize them. But it is even better to live and walk in the reality that Jesus is risen. (He is risen, indeed.) He is alive, right now, and you can live every moment in conversation with him and his Father in the Spirit. You don’t have to struggle against the downward pull of our dead flesh any longer—he has given us new life! Our risen Lord is alive and calling you into deeper relationship with himself—to live in and with him for all eternity.
Jesus is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) God has kept his promise to deliver us from evil, sin, and death. We look for Jesus, not among the dead, but among the living. We gather together as followers of Christ because we know that he lives in us and among us. Jesus is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) And he lives in us and among us by his heavenly Spirit. Come to his table. Eat and drink of him. Now and forever live in newness of life, because Jesus is risen! (He is risen, indeed!)
Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us life—life in relationship with you through Jesus in the Spirit. Thank you for awakening us to new life, giving us the desire and ability to live and walk in Christ, that way of being you created us for—to love you and love others. Grant us the grace to seek the living Lord, who reigns with you in the Spirit forever. Amen.
“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ And they remembered His words, and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.” Luke 24:1–12 NASB
[Printable copy of this blog: https://newhope4me.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/seeking-the-living-among-the-dead.pdf%5D
Living the Risen Life
By Linda Rex
EASTER SEASON—Earlier this week I kept hearing a song playing in my mind which we sang together at GNF Sunday— “He’s Alive!” by Ron Kenoly. It goes like this:
Hallelujah, Jesus is alive
Death has lost its victory
And the grave has been denied
And Jesus lives forever
He’s alive! He’s alive!He’s the Alpha and Omega
The first and last is He
The curse of sin is broken
And we have perfect liberty
The lamb of God has risen
He’s alive! He’s alive!
This song is very upbeat and celebratory. It expresses a profound joy at Jesus’ resurrection. And I believe it also expresses in a more subtle way the affect Jesus’ bodily resurrection has on each of us. This is not only a song of hope that one day we will live again, but it also speaks of the power of God at work in us and our lives even today.
In a family, there is a culture which affects the way in which family members interact with one another as well as how they make decisions and how they live their lives. The culture of a family can bless or harm those who are family members. It is often influenced by its generational history of dysfunction, affluence or poverty, health or lack thereof, and many other factors.
One of the most difficult struggles I have found as a family member is to live out the transition which occurs as a result of Jesus’ resurrection. What I mean is, when Jesus’ new life begins to go to work within us by the Holy Spirit, we often find ourselves at new crossroads with our families and friends. The normal ways in which we function as a family and community were supplanted millennia ago by a new way of being which Jesus inaugurated and established in his life, death, resurrection and ascension. And Jesus is empowering us to live in this new way by the Holy Spirit.
As adults, we may have a faulty self-image created within our own family culture of shaming, abuse, and/or legalistic fault-finding which clouds how we look at ourselves and others. Or we may be obsessed with success and achievement because this was the significant value of our family of origin. We may have been so denigrated and humiliated by our peers and/or parents while growing up that seeking the approval of others became a way of finding meaning and significance in this life. Within our family culture, there may have been unspoken rules about what was allowed and what was not—and we may still follow these patterns even though we are free as adults to find healthier and happier ways of living and being.
Jesus is alive, and I have come to believe this deeply. Jesus is real and has revealed himself to me in so many ways, that for me to say he is not would be an act of complete dishonesty on my part. Going beyond Jesus is alive, then, to Jesus has risen to reign over all, puts me in a place of decision: Do I continue to live my life according to the unspoken rules of my family culture (or even culture in general), or do I live it according to the truth I have encountered in Jesus and have come to believe in?
If all we have ever known is our family’s dysfunction, we could believe that this is the only way things are done. This can be so much a part of the way we do things that we don’t even give it a second thought. If our parents always communicated at the top of their lungs in hostile, angry ways, then it is only natural that this would be the way we conduct our most intimate relationships. If dishonesty, manipulation, or controlling behavior was all we saw and experienced in our families, we may quite naturally follow this pattern in our significant relationships. But is this the risen life? It may feel normal and comfortable and it may come easy, but it is not by any stretch of the imagination an expression of the life of the risen Christ.
We find in Jesus Christ that our humanity is rebirthed. Jesus after the resurrection manifested a transformed humanity which not only was modeled after the divine order but also bore the marks of his crucifixion and enabled him to continue to participate in mundane human activities like eating, walking, and talking. He was still completely human, though glorified, and entirely divine.
Jesus’ risen life meant that the old humanity which was destined only for death was redirected onto a path which led to eternal life. This eternal life Jesus described as intimately knowing God the Father and the Son whom he sent (John 17:3). It was a way of being that was the abundant life Jesus promised us (John 10:10). We as human beings were created to “walk in the garden” with God, sharing with him our thoughts, feelings, and experiences, no matter how intimate. From the beginning we were meant for relationships with God and one another which were other-centered, mutually submissive, loving, and serving.
The risen life is empowered by the Holy Spirit and grounded in Jesus Christ. He was and is the perfect image-bearer of God in his humanity, and we, by the Spirit, are growing up into Christlikeness. We are called to “lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and … be renewed in the spirit of [our mind], and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph. 4:22-24 NASB). The reality is that the life Jesus lived which fully reflected the Father is now ours, and we can participate in it by the Holy Spirit.
The gift of the Spirit enables us to live the risen life and participate with Jesus in his mission in this world. As we experience more and more the healing power of Jesus within us and our relationships, we share those experiences with others—bearing witness to and sharing what he is doing in and through us with others. We pray for them and care for them as the Spirit guides and Jesus leads us. All of life, then, becomes an expression of God’s love for us through Christ in the Spirit, and our response of love and gratitude in return.
Thank you, Jesus, for giving us new life. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for making real in us the life of the risen Lord. Thank you, Abba, for giving us your Son and your Spirit to enable us to experience your real life and participate with you in your mission to share your love and grace with everyone through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
“I will not die, but live, and tell of the works of the LORD.” Psalm 118:17 NASB
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