Editorial: Resurrection is not just about getting back up

It's a time of casting off the callousness, encasing one's existence, and soaking up something new offered there.

Like when a seed discards its outer shell and is given new life, provided by the bacteria from the soil, an entirely new manner and direction of growth is activated. The transformation is radical, a seed radical, if you will. This is when new purpose is begun, living in darkness below the soil is ended, and a stage of soaking in the light, a dependency on the sun, has begun. This triggers the process of photosynthesis and the tiny machines in each cell find fulfillment in the production of life, to use and share.

The parallels are uncanny. We all need change, as we all live in a battle with harshnesses growing over and within our lives. Unless these calloused places are appropriately challenged, they shall never come to their end. Experiences in life condition us to learn knee jerk reactions of hardness, as if somehow this protects us from the damage around. Yet, what of the damage within, compromising every consideration, attitude, or relationship? Some of this is innate and we live demanding and selfish, even as children, before any conditioning. Some of it comes to layer itself upon us from circumstances misunderstood and the compiled selfishness of others in the world around. There is a point where each one of us has to take charge of their own motivations and responses to things. Christendom calls this the age of accountability; it is also what a bar- or bot-mitzvah is about. This is when one asks themselves the Dr. Phil question, “How's that workin' for ya?” It's the examination and realization that something needs to fundamentally change, or life doesn't work. In other words, growing up, and that's a big change.

Life is a little dirty sometimes, and the only thing for it is to dig down, crack that shell and take in newness to grow a new way. However, in order not to wind up growing the same way again, we must learn from this past. Without this radical facing of reality, the pattern, of always getting what you've always got and, in grief, still expecting a different result, shall never fall away, never be cast off, and the insensitivity and coldness will remain. What's necessary is for new, different, life to come out of this; even new order.

Jesus Christ is all about this; in fact, He is this. He is the new order, new supply, and life flow itself, simply because He is God.

Easter, another name for Resurrection Day, is not really about chocolate bunnies and cream eggs. Of course, some may choose to integrate a hunt for these in the day. Yet, it needs to be understood what the real enthusiasm should be over, pursuing new aspects of life itself. Sugar seems like one thing, for one person, and is actually what physical life subsists upon, in one form or another. However, the overload of refined sugar, in these large quantities, is what onset child diabetes is predicated upon. Consequently, we arrive at the old saying, “Too much of a good thing isn't good.” The misnomer is, “Good” here is not actually good, not in its every aspect. Consequently, this is not actually “Good,” as in healthy or morally right, to ingest. Oh, it may be fine to have a little sweets, in moderation, now and again, but for a life to be strong, the lion's share of one's diet must be healthy and balanced nutrition. It's interesting, what's morally right is also what's most healthy for one's life. Along with this, is the exercise of this “Good” throughout our systems, so everything is integrated in the most beneficial way.

Resurrection weekend is all about this change and newness of life, and takes place on this coming Good Friday through to Resurrection Sunday. Most importantly, it is about what Jesus did to provide the opportunity for a new life; it's not just about springtime and flowers and such. Jesus is a seed radical, if you will, or a new order. Anyone who will cast off this hardened, confused life and take in Christ as the catalyst, guide and enablement to live, will find themselves transformed radically. This is when new purpose will begin and living in the darkness of what life has piled up is ended. A stage of soaking in the light, and dependency on the 'Son of God' begins. This triggers the process of 'spiritual-synthesis' and each cell finds fulfillment in God's production of life within.

Those who find this are those who put their trust in the fact, God deemed it so necessary, in order to free us, we had to die. After all, we all, each of us, are a seed which needs resurrection, in order to experience true life and needful purpose. Jesus' dying in our place, so our hard shell of sin would be cast off, was simply the process of design. The Casting off of hardness and all the things this life has conditioned us to struggle under is, Biblically, called judgment of sin. God knew it was needed and stepped in, in the form of Jesus Christ, to take that judgment for us. After all, God is the only one righteous, so, is the only one qualified to do it. Now that's a Loving God, no lightning bolts there. Sin dies under that judgment and is taken away.

What will you hold on to, your outer and inner hardness, if so, you would be taken away by your identification with it as yourself. Instead, you could accept that stripping away of coldness, fear and bitterness and embrace the new life provided by Jesus. In a sense, we are transplanted to the new soil of God's love within Christ and an entirely new manner and direction of growth is activated for us to use and share.

The transformation is radical, the seed is a Love beyond human Love, given as a free gift in Jesus to anyone of us, when we trust in God's intercession in the judgment of sin. This Resurrection weekend may you open up to this radical change and let the Son shine in.

Happy Seasoning