This is Only the Beginning of Resurrection

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 9:11 am by Amy Butler

This is Only the Beginning of Resurrection 2017-04-26T09:11:59-04:00 Amy Butler

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

My Facebook feed tells me that a lot of people I know and love spent a significant part of Easter day working to capture cute pictures of their children in various Easter-related poses. Looking back through old family photo albums, in fact, it seems I have also been guilty of dressing my progeny in uncomfortable outfits, snapping pictures of them crawling through the bushes looking for plastic Easter eggs, and making them pose pretending they liked each other.

While it all seems a little ridiculous, I know why we work so hard for happy Easter pictures, of course. Spring is starting to bloom all around us, our liturgy is pushing us to celebrate new life, and the closest tangible expression of new life is found in the faces and promise of our children. Even in their squirmy discomfort, their Easter pictures bring us hope; they make us think that newness is possible in a world that seems to be deteriorating all around us.

I worry a little bit, though, that the bunny costumes and plastic Easter eggs, shiny faces and posed sibling affection may distract us a bit from the reality of new life. We all know that welcoming new life, the call and mandate of Easter, is so much more painful and messy than our Easter pictures make it out to be.

For one thing, welcoming new life means that something old has to die. Sometimes it’s a habit or practice; sometimes it’s a relationship or a situation; sometimes we say goodbye even to people we love. There’s something in the rending of a current reality that creates the ground for new life to germinate, but there’s no avoiding the pain when that happens. I find that welcoming new life is such a fear-inducing prospect for just this reason: we have to get to a breaking point before new life can even begin.

Further, pretty hats and high white knee socks are cute, but they are fundamentally incompatible with the welcoming of new life. In fact, while my kids look cute as can be in those old Easter pictures, I distinctly remember their entrance into the world and it was the furthest thing from cute I can think of. It was hard, and pain-filled. It involved sweat and blood, tearing and pushing, sudden exposure to bright lights and cold air, tense silence broken by shrill cries. This is the Easter story of the Gospels, too. New life didn’t just appear in pastel hues and sweet surprises while everyone slept peacefully one night. It was born of altercations with the authorities, a fear-filled upper room, and a cross.

Likewise, learning to welcome new life as it begins to inform the old always involves sleepless nights, tears of frustration, painful self-doubt, and the unwavering conviction that this is the hardest thing you’ve ever done and you probably will never survive. As new life pushes its way into our tired realities we feel so conflicted: on the one hand, we know it needs to make its home in our hearts and lives. On the other hand, it’s so pushy! It unsettles every little corner of orderly control we’ve tried to create. New life unmoors us.

Surely this is how the disciples felt, even after the women ran to tell them Christ is risen, even after they saw him and touched his hands and side. Resurrection was only the beginning of figuring out what it means to welcome new life.

As the rabbit costumes are put away this year and we work our way through leftover Easter candy, let’s remember that the cute pictures of our families in their Sunday best are just a the start of resurrection. All the possibility in their eyes, the love their images evokes in us — these should be inspiration or encouragement to keep going in the Easter work of welcoming new life.

If we have the courage to move past posed pictures of scrubbed faces and flowers and fluffy chicks, we will soon find that the task of living into the promise of new life will be less like combed hair and buttoned up vests and more like the earth trembling as a stone rolls away, blinding white light, and falling to our knees in fear and joy. But it will also be last year’s Easter sandals pinching our feet because they’re too small, our lives filled with relationships we could never have imagined just a short time ago, and our own limited dreams for our lives and for the world stretched just a little bit more, moving ever closer to the new life God hopes for all of us. Sunday was beautiful, but it was just the beginning.

May it be so. Happy Easter!

Uncategorized

Previous Post

April 16, 2017

A Matter of Life and Death

Next Post

April 23, 2017 Signs of Life

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Answering the Call Being the Church Curating Wisdom Laughing Out Loud Living in Relationship Practicing Discipleship Reclaiming Baptist Speaking from the Pulpit Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005

Search for:

This is Only the Beginning of Resurrection

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta

What is taught about gossip in the Bible?