Resurrection Sunday

A highlight day of the church calendar approaches this weekend. It is the day we celebrate Christ's resurrection from the dead, following the ghastly events of the Passion week culminating in the osbervance of His death on Good Friday.

I Corinthians 15 is the biblical source for understanding the significance of the resurrection and the key verse for me is verse 19 where Paul observes, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."

The daily Chrfistian life with all of its challenges is worthwhile because of the sustaining presence and power of Christ. Andrae Crouch wrote many years ago, "If heaven were never promised to me, it would still be worth serving the Lord..." I often agreed with that verse until I revisited this scripture which says that if our hope in Christ is restricted to this life, we are are "to be pitied", or as the KJV suggests, we are "most miserable".

I found some further scripture that corroborated that thought, ""So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temproal and what is unseen is eternal", II Corinthians 4:18.

What is in focus in this scriptural context is the fact that many of us experience a variety of challenging cricumstances this side of glory. We are "outwardly wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all".

So Resurrection Sunday shouts hope to us! Sometimes we are not certain--if hard-pressed to respond--that the daily grind is sufficient motivation for serving Christ. We find our solace in the long-term objective of being freed from these mortal bodies and and transformed for the eternal reward thata waits us. That is why Paul would write at the end of his life, "Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing", II Timothy 4:8.

Resurrection Sunday approaches, and with it the reminder for those struggling with the daily "stuff" of life, God has something better in mind.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross...Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that youw ill not grow weary and lose heart", Hebrews 12:2.3.