[Pearls Ep 164: Preparing for Sunday.]
We’re looking at Jesus’ amazing words – “I AM the resurrection and the life.”
Many time just the first part of that gets referenced – “I AM the resurrection.”
But the key is the 2nd half, “and the life.”
It seems zombie movies were all the rage for the past few years. Everything from mindless splatter fests to “thinking man’s zombie movies” like “I am legend” to real-life zombie TV like C-SPAN ?
If there’s one thing we can learn from zombies, and there might only be one thing, it’s that resurrection in and of itself isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
That, in fact, is the teaching of St. Cyril of Alexandria, “Assuredly a fruit and reward of faith in Christ is eternal life, and in no other way does this come to the soul of man. For although we are all raised to life through Christ, yet this [eternal life given to the faithful] is the true life, namely, to live unendingly in bliss.”
In other words, resurrection is only something desirable if it leads to eternal life. And that is why we give our lives over to Christ – because it is only in Him that, when our time comes to be resurrected, we have the hope of continuing on to heaven, rather than the other place.
But the power of The Resurrection (which is Jesus) isn’t just made manifest at the end of time. It is something we should seek continually. Now let’s turn to St. John Chrysostom:
“Jesus shows that He needed no other to help Him, if so be that He Himself is the Life; since if He needed another, how could He be the Resurrection and the Life? Yet He did not plainly state this, but merely hinted it. But when Martha says again, ‘Whatsoever you ask of God, God will give You,’ He replies, ‘He that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.’ Showing that He is the Giver of good things, and that we must ask of Him.”
That’s a bit of a mouthful – the main point of the great Saint is our continual need to turn to Christ and the power of the Resurrection in all our needs.
In other words, the resurrection is very relevant to our present situation. St. Paul says, “For your sake we are killed all day long.” St. John Chrysostom associates this with spiritual death – “It is possible in one day to die not once or twice but many times. For someone who is always prepared for this will continually receive a full reward. This is what the psalmist hints at when he says ‘all the day long.’” (see Psalm 44)
Our wounds, trials and sufferings, big and small, become little deaths if we unite them to Christ, and then little resurrections.
For example, when we have pride that needs to be conquered, and humiliation comes our way – that’s a death of sorts. And if we accept it courageously and unite it to Christ, rather than responding with anger and indignation – what is that if not a resurrection to new life? There’s something new and life-giving in our new-found humility, that wasn’t there before.
We’ll dive deeper into practical aspects of this on Monday. Until then, we pray this weekend brings a new way of looking at Jesus as “the resurrection and the life” in your own life.
Lenten blessings –
Steve
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life