Resurrection
April 2, 2015 Roland Kuhl 0 Comments
The problem that most people have with believing that Jesus Christ was resurrected is that it seems so contrary to what we experience in our day-to-day experience. But the fact of the matter is that we do experience resurrection all the time, at critical points in our lives. We come to discover that we are different, new – we experience resurrection in our own lives. I am not just speaking metaphorically.
I was once asked by a college student, “can’t I just believe in Jesus’ teachings, do I need to believe that he was resurrected from the dead?”
My response was this:
“What’s so hard to believe about the resurrection? Resurrection happens all the time when life conquers death, when living life overcomes eking out an existence.”
Resurrection is not all that hard to fathom – it indeed does happen all the time.
Christ’s resurrection was once and for all time – for through his resurrection from the dead he conquered all that sets itself against life, sets itself against that which seeks to destroy us.
In my own life, I recognize that there have been at least three times of resurrection.
My experiences of resurrection come after futile attempts of my trying to eke out a life for myself.
The first time was I was embraced by God. I had grown up in a church and around the age of 12, I was invited to make a commitment to Jesus in my life. I did. I was baptized. And then I discovered the Christian life was impossible to live. I did my best – trying to follow the rules, be as good as I can, but no matter how hard I tried I felt I was never right with God. I was always repenting of my sins, but throughout high school I could never find a way of walking with God. At the time of my graduation I decided that I could not keep living my life in this tortured way – so either I figured how to live with God or I needed to forget God.
I went off to university and got connected with some other college-aged students. They invited me to a retreat weekend over Canadian Thanksgiving and I had the most miserable time of my life – they worshiped, they studied the Bible, they listened to teachings – “how could anyone enjoy this I asked myself?” But one thing I did notice – it seemed that they had a living relationship with Christ in their lives – a relationship, no matter how hard I tried to initiate and develop it – always seemed to elude me.
On Thanksgiving Monday, I came to realize that if God was able to be in their lives like that, but God was never in my life like that – no matter how hard I tried, God did not care about me enough to take hold of my life. And so, with a deep sense of finality, I decided I was done with God.
As we gathered in a barn, the leader Brian asked if anyone had anything to share. I shared my decision of being done with God and the story that led up to that decision. He asked if he could pray for me – I couldn’t care less, but said “knock yourself out.”
And then resurrection happened. As Brian prayed, and as I gave up on God, I literally felt embraced by God. I felt accepted for the first time by God. I had given up trying – and God was able to take hold of me and fill me with life. I was indeed dead – and now I was resurrected.
The second time was in theological seminary as I was preparing for pastoral ministry. My dad warned me about going there – since it was not a school associated with the church I grew up in. He said, “You’ll lose your faith there.” And I began to discover that my dad was right. I began struggling with faith questions that were not fitting into my predetermined set of beliefs – these questions did not fit my “faith box.”
One day in class, as I was wrestling if what I believed actually was true, another professor substituted for my regular professor – who was ill or out of town, or something like that. And rather than teaching a class, jack Rogers began describing the kind of faith struggles many first year seminary students experience. He had my attention; I think I was on the edge of my seat as he described my struggle. He mentioned that there was always someone who was going to be smarter than us who would ask a question for which we would not have an answer. So what would we do – give up on our faith because we did not know how to answer the question?
He asked, “do you want to know a better way?” I think I audibly expressed a “yes!” And this is what he said: “Rather than putting your faith in your faith, what you believe about Jesus, instead, put your faith in the person of Jesus.” “Put your trust in him, rather than what you believe about him.”
That sounded so simple – and so I did. Rather than placing my faith in my own faith box or system, I placed my faith in Christ. And that was another resurrection experience in my life. Now I find I can ask questions for which I do not have an answer, and even express that I do not. But I am assured that as I walk with Jesus, that he has some insight in response to such questions. Though it may take a lifetime to figure things out, I know that I can be at peace not knowing the answers to all of life – but rather, walk with the One who is the answer to all of life. Shifting my faith from a set of beliefs to trusting Christ through a relationship was indeed a resurrection encounter.
The third experience of resurrection came after a long period of restless journeying . . .