Resurrection
Resurrection, in practical terms, means bringing something that is dead back to life. As Christians, resurrection means being “regenerated,” that is, beginning a new life, through Christ’s resurrection. We are dead people, people who can’t raise ourselves up to good deeds, bringing nothing but evil and death into the world; but when Christ resurrects us through his resurrection, we stop being dead people and come back to life. We are, in a spiritual sense, zombies! We have been given a new life that is different from the old. But unlike zombies, who are shadows of their former selves, our former selves are only shadows of who we can be with Christ strengthening us. This should give us a certain quality and character in our lives: Christians should be people who know the fear of death, and who know that death ultimately has no power over them. Therefore, we are not afraid, and we are hopeful. We have seen miracles happen in our own lives, and so we are prepared – we even expect – miracles to happen around us. We are not trapped by the narratives of news media and internet commenters about disaster, division, hopeless violence and constant battles. Those things have no power over us when Christ is in us. We may be disheartened by all that we see around us, and we may even recognize that we will not see the end of war, murder, crime, and self-abuse. But we fight like Gideon, outnumbered but confident of victory. We persevere like Noah, knowing that the storm eventually has to end. We weep like the mother of Jesus, who watched her son die a criminal’s death, but we sing like her too, knowing that miraculous resurrection is possible.