Resurrection Week Devotion: 7 days. 7 reflections. 1 Eternity-shaking Resurrection!

38 ’”Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him.”
39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.”
40 For they no longer dared to ask Him any question.’

Luke 20:38-40 English Standard Version

What are some of the first pictures that come to mind when I say the word ‘Easter’?

If you said chocolate or Easter eggs, that would be pretty typical of many across the world, particularly in Western commercialised cultures. The supermarkets are filled with them. In fact, have you noticed how the presence of chocolate at this time of year has crept beyond the confines of the confectionary aisle to inhabit several promotional stands at the ends of aisles and again at the checkouts? It’s as if the stores have become more chocolate than storehouses of the basics, like milk and toilet paper!

Maybe you thought of the true meaning of the season, from a Christian perspective. Well done! In fact, our faith is often iconified or depicted by one simple symbol from this very week: A cross. What a symbol! And what love it portrays!

‘God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, “I love you.”’

Billy Graham

But have you noticed how — nowadays — the prime focus areas of attention for this week are either consumption (ie Easter eggs) or crucifixion?

My question is, what about the empty tomb? Or the sight of Jesus surprising His followers in the hours and days after rising from the dead? Where is the resurrection in this week? The death is vital, as long as the rising from that state is front of mind.

The great reformer of Christian practice, Martin Luther, wrote that ‘The cross is the victory, the resurrection is the triumph… The resurrection is the public display of the victory, the triumph of the crucified one.’ And it was theologian Timothy Keller who said, definitively: ‘If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.’

Jesus never intended us to end the memory of His story on death. Sacrifice? Certainly. But death is no longer a full stop on living. In Jesus, by the sacrifice He made, and in the power of His resurrection, we have the life we were always intended to breathe.

’We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.’

Romans 6:4 ESV

For a full breakdown of the week leading to the Resurrection of Jesus, see this table provided by the team who brought us the English Standard Version of the Bible: https://is.gd/olgMH0

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