That resurrection feeling
An Easter reflection
What does resurrection feel like? One of my theology teachers at university always made a point of asking what the tangible effects of any particular theological idea were. What does sin feel like? What does grace feel like? What does salvation feel like?
Those of us familiar with the Scriptures can, of course, provide an account of what resurrection is. It is the resurrection of Christ from the grave on the third day; the assurance that Christ’s work on the cross was effective; the promise of a future resurrection to come and the renewal of all things.
Yet to celebrate the resurrection is not simply a matter of assenting to some historical facts, or signing off on some doctrinal statements. Resurrection is something that stirs us on a much deeper level. It is that indescribable feeling of joy and hope that follows from believing that the tomb was empty on Easter morning. There is a sense that the resurrection matters now. Its significance is not exhausted by a historical event in the past, nor a hoped-for event in the future.
Paul was someone who lived and breathed the reality of resurrection. In Paul’s letters, resurrection does not just refer to Christ’s victory over the grave, or the future resurrection of the dead, as central as those two themes are. Rather, the resurrection is the paradigm for how God works in the world. For Paul, God’s modus operandi is to give life to the dead: not just the physically dead, but to any situation that is lifeless and hopeless.
In Romans 4, Paul invokes the example of Abraham. The idea that Abraham and Sarah would bear a son in their old age was the ultimate hopeless situation. Abraham’s body was ‘as good as dead’ (v. 19). Sarah’s womb was barren—literally ‘dead’ in Greek (v. 19). But Abraham believed in the God who ‘gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist’ (v. 17).
Paul makes a similar point in 2 Corinthians 1. Paul refers allusively to the affliction that he and his companions received in Asia. They despaired of life itself (v. 8), and they received the ‘sentence of death’ (v. 9). All this, however, was so that they might trust in the God who raises the dead (v. 9). ‘He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again’ (v. 10).
As these two passages make clear, resurrection is not simply an abstract idea. When we come to the end of ourselves, when we face a situation that is as ‘good as dead,’ when we receive the ‘sentence of death,’ then God rolls up his sleeves. To believe in the resurrection is to believe that, even when we have exhausted all possibilities, God can break in.
This implication of the resurrection might feel hollow to some of us. To announce God’s ability to give life to the dead appears to pass over the fact that many dead situations seem, for all intents and purposes, to remain dead. To be sure, our faith has the resources to account for this all-to-common feature of human life. At the same time, Easter Sunday is a reminder that, for those who trust Christ, this is never the end of the story. We grieve, but not as those who have no hope (1 Thess. 4.13). Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we trust that God will restore what has been lost, if not in this life, then certainly in the next.
I finish with a reflection from my theology teacher, who draws on Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones coming to life:
If you want to encounter the awesome power of God, look to the piles of bones around you. Look to the place in your life that has no breath in it—the intractable situation, the hope that died, the dust in your hands. And then have the courage of faith to invoke God’s resurrection power. Call upon the Holy Spirit, whose nature is to give life, to be poured out over the circumstances of your life: Come breathe upon these slain, that they may live.1
Happy Easter!
https://mbird.com/bible/the-god-who-gives-life-to-the-dead/.