Resurrection….What does that mean to you? We just moved through Lent and finished with Resurrection Sunday or Easter, whichever you want to call it. We celebrate a holiday every year that is rooted in the resurrection, but what does it actually mean? Let’s look at the definition. Webster defines it as follows, 1: The rising of Christ from the dead, all humans rising from the dead before the final judgment, the rising of one from the dead. 2: Resurgence, Revival 3: Christian Science: a spiritualization of thought: material belief that yields to spiritual understanding. The word Resurrection comes from Anglo-French resurreccioun. Its Latin root, surgere, means “to rise.” Let’s put this together in simple terms. Resurrection means to bring something to life where there is no life. To raise something to life that was dead. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died and came back to life, He was resurrected.
This concept of death to life is something that we see every year around this time. Spring is a resurrection of sorts. The foliage from last year dies off it comes back to life in the spring. We have seasons of life that end and in that ending is the beginning of a new season. Without the end or death of something, there can not be a resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15 talks about
the resurrection of the dead. In verse 36 Paul says that what you sow doesn’t come to life unless it dies. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says that he has been crucified with Christ, it is no linger him that lives but Christ in him. We are surrounded by death and life. Things that are being resurrected are all around us. I want to leave you with a thought. In your life, what do you need to let die so that it can produce new life? What in your life needs resurrecting? Are there things you have been trying to keep alive that are taking up space where something beautiful could bloom? If the plants didn’t let go of the old parts that don’t have life anymore, it wouldn’t have room for the spring to bring new life. You and I are no different. What new life do you need to make room for?
Pastor Beau Gamble