We are entering the “Season of Easter” this April. Easter, then, is more than a day, it’s a season -a season for all the seasons of our lives.
The Apostle Paul understands this profound truth. So, he declares that what drives his heart and mind is this: “That I may know Jesus and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).
For Paul it is not the crucifixion of Jesus that drives him. Paul does not give his heart and mind to Jesus’ crucifixion; imaging how Jesus took his place on the cross.
Paul does not give his heart and mind to meditate on the suffering of Jesus as a suffering he should have endured.
No. Paul tells us he directs his attention to the resurrection of Jesus and to knowing Jesus as the living Lord.
Still, Paul’s emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus does not dismiss the cross. On the contrary, Jesus’ suffering on the cross reflects the work of God who resurrected Jesus. Paul says, in the cross of Jesus, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Hence, God was not against us in the cross of Jesus, but profoundly for us out of “his own love for us.”
Paul says, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them,” (2 Cor. 5:19). Thus, Paul gives us this amazing assurance: “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).
Suffering. All our heartaches, all our struggles, all our tears, all our deaths, come under the crucified God on the cross of Jesus and his resurrection. This then the “good news” of God in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This “good news” dominates Paul’s heart and mind.
Paul’s emphasis on Jesus’ resurrection seeks to raise up for us this: that whatever difficulties we experience, whatever sufferings come our way, whatever pain we suffer, we know that God is with us to bear us up and lead us to new life.
We then can persevere with our hearts and minds through and beyond our sufferings -and identify with the sufferings of others, to the resurrection and the living Jesus Christ. The promise and hope of the living Jesus is what sustains us in good times and bad times.
In this season of Easter, may the power of Jesus’ resurrection also sustain you. We are people with life and hope alive in us because of the proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection.
Because of the power of Jesus’ resurrection, we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Join then with Paul and press forward, on good days and bad days, to set our hearts and minds on the power of Jesus’ resurrection, for it is the fullness of God’s love and grace for us.