All over the world, resurrection day or Easter is celebrated as a special day. Those who fasted from non-vegetarian or other items in the past 40 days would break the fast and celebrate Easter. I would like to reflect on Easter and its meaning to us in day-to-day life.
Resurrection is the very foundation of our faith as the glory of Jesus Christ was revealed in the resurrection. Paul puts up these arguments in his letter to the First Corinthians. “If we do not worry about the resurrection, we can eat and drink and die tomorrow” for there is no difference between living righteously or living wildly. Because there is no eternity of bliss or judgement.
Resurrection power is the power that enables us to live like Christ practically. We read in 2 Timothy 3:16,17 – ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’ The Bereans were nobler in character as they received the word eagerly and examined the Scriptures every day (Acts 17:11).
Jesus had the habit of praying, that is talking to the Father early morning (Mark 1:36). And there are many occasions that Jesus prayed. As we pray, we are guided by His Word as it instructs us to obey, rebukes when we do not follow, corrects when we do not do well and finally, the Word trains us to be right before God in everyday life. Resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead is poured into us when we are sanctified with the Word of God. The life-changing power of the resurrection works in our day-to-day life enabling us to follow our Lord Jesus, carrying our cross.
The reading of the Word and prayer based on the Word make us like Jesus through the power of resurrection. Simply praying for hours for our material needs without a change of life leads to false spirituality and hypocrisy. It also gives false hope of a relationship with God and life after death.
The hope of resurrection is the hope and faith of all forefathers. When we talk about Moses in Hebrews 11:26 26 ‘He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.’ The author of Hebrews again talks about the same in the following verses about the future. 11:39-40. ‘These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.’
Hope gives us the motivation for our life. We always do things hoping that all will go well. We eat so that we will become strong. We work hard to become somebody. We go to hospitals to become well. We all hope and live our life. But eternity is much more important and that is our final destiny. We walk every day towards the death of our bodies. Death is inevitable and so resurrection is the only hope we have in Christ. The hope of resurrection with Christ is the most important thing for which we should live.
1 Corinthians 15:19 ‘If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.’ The NLT version says ‘And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.’