Hallelujah! Christ Arose!

Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior,
Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!
Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o’er his foes;
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And he lives forever with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!
- Robert Lowry, 1874 (United Methodist Hymnal, #322)

Imagine you had never heard the Easter story before. Walk with me through the words of this wonderful hymn. Allow yourself to experience the emotions of someone hearing these great truths for the first time.

The first line is almost unbearably sad. Jesus is dead. He came to be our Savior, and now he is in the grave. How can a dead man save anyone? He is gone, our hope is gone, all seems lost.

But wait. The second line speaks, not of loss, but of waiting. Waiting implies hope. When the time is right, at “the coming day,” something is going to happen.

The second line also calls Jesus, “Lord.” That’s a huge step past “Savior.” Anybody can be a savior in the right circumstances. Even a dog can save somebody’s life. But no matter how grateful you are to be rescued, you’re never going to call the dog your lord. In order to fully grasp the significance of Easter, we do have to recognize Jesus as our Savior, who rescues us when we cannot save ourselves. But we also have to acknowledge him as Lord, as Master, as the one who has the right to direct our lives and command our allegiance. Recognizing and acknowledging this, and living in line with it, is the most basic meaning of being a Christian.

The third line gets to the reason why we’re singing. “Up from the grave he arose.” Jesus didn’t stay in the grave. He came back to life. He came back from the dead!

But Jesus didn’t just come come out of the grave. He came “with a mighty triumph o’er his foes.” This is not some reanimated corpse or zombie apocalypse. This is life, a whole new kind of life, a life this world hasn’t seen since the Garden of Eden.

“He arose a victor from the dark domain.” Jesus allowed himself to be taken captive into the depths of Satan’s kingdom of death. Then he didn’t just escape death. Jesus defeated death! He faced the worst the devil could do, in the devil’s own stronghold, and Jesus arose victorious.

“And he lives forever. . .” When death is defeated, life is eternal.

“. . . with his saints to reign.” This isn’t just talking about Peter and John and Mother Teresa. When the Bible uses the word “saints,” it means everyone who has decided to trade life in their own strength for life in Jesus Christ. If we are in Christ, and Christ is reigning in heaven, then from the viewpoint of eternity, guess where we are? In heaven, reigning with Christ. God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6).

Easter is not just about the resurrection of Jesus. It’s about resurrection and eternal life for every person who puts their faith in Jesus. It’s about hope and new life and never-ending joy, not just for Jesus, but for everyone who follows him.

That’s why we sing on Easter, and every Sunday.

“He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!”

Holy to the Lord

Prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” - 1 Peter 1:13-16

Lent, the season of the church year in which we find ourselves all this month, is traditionally a time for self-examination. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” But as we examine ourselves, what are we looking for?

When most people think of Lent, if they think of it at all, they think in terms of giving up something. They may promise not to eat sweets or red meat. They may give up television or romance novels. It may be something they feel they ought not be doing anyway, or it may be something that is perfectly acceptable, but giving it up will be a sacrifice. One reason for doing this is so that every time we want a piece of candy, or whatever we gave up, we should be reminded of Jesus’ much greater sacrifice for us.

It’s always good and valuable to remind ourselves, “Jesus loves me so much that he sacrificed his life for me.” But behind that is a deeper question. “Why did Jesus have to make that sacrifice for me?” Beyond the fact that all human beings are tainted by the sinful rebellion that is inbred into our race, this question should lead us to examine ourselves for the particulars of our own part in that sinfulness.

God created us to be holy. “Holy” is not theological jargon for “goody-two-shoes.” Holy doesn’t mean, “never have any fun.” Holy doesn’t imply thinking you are better than everybody else, or that anybody who doesn’t follow your particular list of rules is on the wrong side of God. Actually, the literal meaning is, “set apart for a special use.”

When I was growing up we had two sets of dishes in our house. We had the dishes we used every day for every meal. They lived in easy reach in the kitchen cabinets. We were reasonably careful of them, but if one broke, it was more an inconvenience than anything else.

Then we had the special dishes. They lived in the china cabinet in the dining room, and the rare times they appeared on the table you knew something big was up. These dishes were set apart for a special use. You could say they were “holy to special meals.” To use one of those special dishes for a bowl of cereal or a peanut butter sandwich would almost be a sacrilege. We handled those dishes very carefully.

In the same way, as Christians our lives are to be set apart as “holy to the Lord.” There are some things that are appropriate for Christian lives, and some that are not. We need to handle these special lives we have been given very carefully.

Lent is a set-apart time for examining ourselves to see if there are areas where we are allowing our set-apart status to be compromised. God created you to serve and honor him, in your home and your work and your community as well as in church. There are certain things that the world considers acceptable that God tells us are inappropriate for those dedicated to him. Lent is a time for asking ourselves, “Am I letting myself in any way be contaminated by the world?”

1 Peter 3:13-16 is a great outline for self-examination. Ask yourself: Do I keep my mind prepared to hear from God and act for him? How is my self-discipline? Are my hopes and dreams set on the promises of God? Is my desire to please my heavenly Father by doing what he wants? Have I shed the old desires that used to control me before I knew the Lord? Do my thoughts and words and actions demonstrate that I have set my life apart for God? Does my life honor the holy God?

Don’t let this exercise end up in self-condemnation. The whole point of the Holy Week to which Lent leads us is that Jesus took our condemnation on himself when he died on the cross. There is no condemnation left for you to bear. Instead, there is grace and forgiveness and love and a fresh start. Lent leads, not to death, but to resurrection! So take the sins and failures and opportunities for improvement that you uncover, and offer them to God. Receive in exchange the power of the Holy Spirit to help you do better. None of us can make ourselves holy. The Spirit – the “Holy” Spirit – does that in us. Learn to sense his moving in your life and flow with it. (This is what we help each other learn the second and fourth Sunday evenings at Flowing in the Spirit. We’d love to have you join us!)

You may find that Lent turns out to be the most joyful season of all!