QUARANTINE BLOG # 13

Kristos Voskrees!
Vyeastino Voskrees!

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!

EASTER PEOPLE
1 Corinthians 15:12-28, 50-58

Imagine the Monday in Jerusalem after Easter Sunday. Things were going on just like they had the Monday before. It was business as usual. The only people who were changed were the disciples and the women. It was so transforming that almost immediately the early believers changed their day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. The essence of their worship would be celebrating Easter every Sunday.

A problem had arisen in Corinth which is described in verse 12: “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”

The validity of Christianity hinges on the single fact that Jesus rose literally. Affirming the resurrection of Jesus is all or nothing. The Christian faith rises or falls on the literal resurrection of Jesus. If that is not true, our faith is in vain, and we have no hope.

The resurrection of Jesus is the visible manifestation of God’s ultimate victory. The resurrection of Jesus is not the foretaste of the victory. It is the victory.

The end of the age has already come. The outcome of the battle has already been decided. He defeated sin. He defeated death. He defeated hopelessness and despair. It is not that he will defeat them someday, they are already defeated.

Paul’s argument is that the ultimate victory has already taken place. The final battle has already been waged and won by Jesus himself when he was raised from the dead.

But that victory, that affirmation can only be perceived through the eyes of faith. The second coming will be the visible manifestation of what is already true; of the victory that has already occurred. The details are uncertain, but – Jesus is coming. Everyone is going to be there. No one is going to be late. Everyone is going to stay until it is over.

Christian people are Easter people; we live Easter lives. The affirmation of this truth is 15:58 – “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

Everything that would undue me is destroyed, but I live in the tension between “the already” and “the not yet.” Steadfast. Immovable – rock solid. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. Knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

How we have spent our lives, the good, the bad, the ugly, counts in God’s kingdom. Parents who think they have failed their children. People who think they have failed on their jobs. People who think they are personal failures.

The resurrection is the guarantee that your labor is not in vain. The struggles are not with death. The struggles are with life and living. We can live in a different way, because the issues have already been decided.

Death is not the end. The resurrection is the end. And that is in the hands of God.

In that realization we can take whatever comes today and endure it, and not just survive, but labor and rejoice, because our faith has already been settled. The One who has settled it is for us and not against us! We are Easter People!

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