Artie Sposaro

Nothing is more powerful and beautiful than resurrection. Life after death in any form captivates us, and rightly so. Jesus’ resurrection, celebrated this past Sunday, serves as the centerpiece and crux of Christianity. Jesus’ resurrection brought with it the promise of new life and a new way of life with God. Without it Christianity would be lifeless at best or worse, non-existent. Resurrection means new life, and we all need new life.

At some level, we all long for ‘Jesus-like’ life-giving resurrection.  We hope for vibrant life, peace, and freedom. We need second, third, and fourth chances. We desire that the broken down things in our lives be restored. Resurrection makes way for all of this and more.

But there is a serious bother with resurrection – death. Death always precedes resurrection. It’s death that leads to new life…what a bothersome paradox. Death stinks, literally and figuratively. Nobody likes to face it or even think about it. We certainly don’t invite it or hope for it. But unfortunately, there is no resurrection life without it.

Any lasting impact or bearing of fruit in our lives begins with the bother of death. If we want change, our lives to be meaningful, or our influence to go beyond ourselves, then death is essential. In leading the way Jesus said, “unless a kernel of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit.” Total selfless surrender leads to life.

What exactly needs to be put to death? – in short, everything that’s run amuck within us. For the sake of brevity and practicality, two things in particular need to be surrendered; synthetic life and festering wounds. Searching ourselves regarding a couple related questions will move us along the road to resurrection. First, how have we manufactured life for ourselves? Selfishly, apart from God we may have created a false self and lifestyle to go with it…and even built walls and a moat to protect it. We need to bury this counterfeit life altogether.

Second, do we have festering wounds? Deep-seated wounds like abuse, neglect, shame and reactions to them like addiction, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, fear, withdrawal, and overindulgence eat away at our quality of life. These infections must be rooted out, cleaned, and healed for us to experience a life to the fullest. Easier said than done.

Putting something to death in our lives means letting it go completely, whatever it is. We surrender and admit our brokenness, our inability to ‘get it right.’ As we let go, God’s grace empowers our willful demise. Our surrender and brokenness sets us free to rise up and walk toward something new – resurrection. With new legs we amble into new life.

Make no mistake, death hurts. We avoid it for good reason. Truly letting go of a way of being or doing is nothing short of death. However, death can’t match the power and beauty of life-giving resurrection. Once experiencing new life we see that we what were experiencing before it was little more than death we called life.

So, don’t let the bother of death get you down. God is always perfectly present in our death(s) and resurrection(s). Remember Lazarus? He was so dead when Jesus showed up that he reeked! Come to find out, Jesus intentionally hesitated so that God’s resurrection power and beauty would be evident in the new life of Lazarus. The same goes for us.

God is in the resurrection business. Like Lazarus, your situation may reek. But resurrection is coming with its power and beauty. Count on it.

(This article was originally published in April 2010 in the Henry County Times)