“Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man…Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed…For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality…’ Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ …thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers [and sisters], stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
(excerpts from I Corinthians 15)
Those words say a lot. But I‘m the kind of person who likes to boil it down to its basic bottom line. And here‘s what I came up with: “Things don’t have to stay dead anymore.” I’ll admit, it does seem a bit simplistic, but I think it’s true. So, if you remember nothing else from this reflection today, remember this grammatically awkward statement: “It’s not too late. Things don’t have to stay dead anymore.”
I turn on the news. There’s a war on. Iraq is a dead place. A bomb here. A bullet there. Call me an idealist, but the message of the resurrection says “It’s not too late. Things don’t have to stay dead anymore.” Real, lasting victory can be won through Jesus Christ our Lord (only through Jesus Christ our Lord!)
But sadly, I don’t even have to turn on the news. I simply look around at the world and I can see that it’s still a dead place. Drugs, crime, prostitution, environmental disaster, racism, theft, murder, rape, deception, adultery. A bomb here (literally, for those who live in Spain!). A bullet there. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the world is a dead place. But the message of the resurrection is a message of life. It says “It’s not too late. Things don’t have to stay dead anymore.” We can shed the clothing of mortality thanks to the immortality of Jesus Christ. Because of the resurrection power made available to us personally through faith in Christ, we can loosen the knots of vice and embrace the ultimate modern-day virtue: life.
But sadly, I look into my heart. I have to be honest: regrettably, there are times when even I as a minister don’t feel much of anything. I’m embarrassed to say that a heart can also be a place of death. It takes the form of jealousy, self-centeredness, pride, hate, and lust, among a whole list of other things (including disappointment). A bomb here. A bullet there. Know what I mean? Yes, I am embarrassed to say: that a heart can be a place of death. What’s the point of denying it? We can all relate to that, I think.
And that’s why I picked this text today. This text tells us that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not just something that affects Jesus: it’s something that affects me, too, if I place my faith in Jesus. Crudely put, this text tells me: “It’s not too late. Things don’t have to stay dead in that heart anymore.” I will say again, that this is stating it a bit crudely, but that doesn’t stop it from being any less true, does it? Of course not. “Things don’t have to stay dead in that heart anymore.” Really. Christ can infuse our hearts with His life. His death, burial, and resurrection prove that.
On Friday He died, taking all our sins upon Himself. On Saturday, He buried our sins with Him in the grave, never to be exhumed, never to be dug up again by those creepy gravediggers. Then, the Bible tells us Jesus marched into Hades. A lot of people were waiting there for Him. I wonder if He told them, “Don’t worry it’s not too late.” He declared them free as He took the keys of death. He knew “I don’t have to stay dead anymore.” And so…On Sunday, He emerged from the grave. Alive. Jesus wasn’t swallowed by death. It was the other way around. He swallowed death. “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?”
Yes, through believing in Him, things don’t have to stay dead in our hearts anymore. Through faith in Him, Jesus can infuse our hearts with His life. And that’s how He can infuse the world with life: one heart at a time. Things in the world around us don’t have to stay dead anymore.
That’s why Paul concludes this section on the resurrection by saying “Stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
He says that because the “work” we are to give ourselves fully to is “the Lord’s”. And “The Lord’s work” is a work of resurrection. It’s a work of infusing dead hearts with Christ’s living power. A work of exchanging mortality for immortality, of trading the perishable for the imperishable. And it begins in you. And me.
So, we wake up on Monday morning: and everything goes fine. But we wake up on Tuesday morning, and the day is a disaster. There’s a hurtful word spoken; a life-quenching thought sent out. You end the day feeling the shrapnel of relational landmines. Shards of glass, splinters of wood, slivers of metal prick your heart, deep cuts in your soul. But you realize: “Things don’t have to stay dead anymore.” You decide to give it a try. You figure, “Immortal God wrapped our mortal flesh around Himself when He became baby Jesus, so why can't I wrap His immortality around my spirit? Bury my old self in him and become a newborn baby, just like He did.” So, you take your heart, cut and bleeding, and hand it to Him--that’s what it means to place your faith in Him.
He takes your heart and folds it carefully into His body. In other words, He swallows death--that’s what it means to be saved by Him. Inside His body now, you feel your heart begin to beat again, this time steady and strong--that’s what it means to have new life in Him. It’s happened, you’re a newborn baby, with a new day awaiting you, a whole new life ahead of you. You lay there inside His body: Warm, loving, comforting: His skin is a blanket. You rest there. And then realize, “I have the strength to face another day. I’m not dead. Things don’t have to stay dead. I can live.” That’s power for living. That, my friends, is what you call Resurrection Power.
May our prayer always be: “Lord, begin and complete your resurrection work in my heart. I don’t want to stay dead anymore.”
Take time to reflect on the disappointment and disgrace that abides in your heart, personally. Then, take time to contemplate that there is hope for another day because of the life-giving work of a Risen Savior.
Finally, pray to Him, asking Him to infuse your heart with His life, and then believe that He will do it, by faith.
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