Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/86

Contributor - John DeHaan

Title - The Resurrection ... Deepening Your Appreciation

Topic - Resurrection

How many of you who are reading this article are hockey fans? If I asked you to explain why, what would you say? Perhaps it's because you can appreciate the difficulty of skating and are overwhelmed by the grace, technique and sheer power of the players. Maybe it's the fast pace and the continual switching from offense to defense that you enjoy. If you had once played hockey this too would undoubtedly add or enhance your feelings for the sport. The merely curious, like myself, will never be able to fully enjoy or appreciate hockey on the same level or to the same degree as those who had once taken part in the actual playing of the sport. There is a point of contact or identification that will be forever lacking unless somehow I too play hockey. I could devote myself to seriously studying the sport. I could consume myself with following the teams and the individual players. I could buy season tickets, a satellite dish and never miss a televised game. I could even meet, get to know and befriend hockey players. But until I actually play hockey nothing will produce or make up for what is gained by participation.

This same principle holds true for just about every area of life and the purpose of this article is to apply it to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead also.

There are probably as many ways to appreciate the resurrection as there are people so I've chosen to make it more manageable by breaking them down into three broad categories.

One of these groups is made up of what I call curious observers. Like everything else, the resurrection too can be viewed from a distance or with a rather detached unaffected removal, and that is how the curious observer sees it. They stand on the outside, so to speak, looking on. The significance and importance others place on it is not quite the same or felt to the same degree. It's kind of like going into a room full of wild hockey enthusiasts during the Stanley Cup and wondering in your ignorance what all the excitement is about. It doesn't mean anything and it never will until more is found out. The same holds true when it comes to the resurrection. Either a person forever looks on, observing and wondering about it or their curiosity can lead them to the place where profound personal meaning is found in the resurrection.

At this same crossroads Mary Magdalene and the other Mary found themselves in Matthew 28:1. In stark, brief language it says merely that they "went to look at the tomb". As yet, they had not seen or met the risen Jesus. As yet, everything he stood for and taught remained a mystery, clouded by what they considered to be an untimely and tragic death. But in going to look at the tomb they were now in a place where every curious observer needs to be if the resurrection (and all of scripture for that matter) is to be meaningful. They were in a place where Jesus himself might meet them.

Curiousity by itself accomplishes, my so much. A person can absorb, learn, and study all their lives about what Jesus said and did. But it will never come close to providing what is gained when Jesus himself is encountered. What was once distant or mildly intriguing now has your name on it and becomes personal. A historical figure (Jesus) who once lived way back then becomes wonderfully real and close, saying anew "I will be with you always."

The difference between those who are curious observers and the encountered is basically one of need. The truly encountered are open to it and desire it. They want it and seek it. No one responds adequately to Jesus out of complete self-satisfaction. Without ever saying it many times the encountered person declares by his or her actions that they could not get along and would be incomplete unless Jesus was in their lives. In a roundabout way that is what the women were saying when they went to the tomb where their friend Jesus was buried. They were unsatisfied and empty because of his absence and unless they had met him and seen that he was raised they would have remained that way. The encountered person deep down will recognize and admit the same thing.

Thus far I have dealt with two categories of people. The curious observers and the encountered. But there is still one more. These are what I call the soldiers. When Jesus came he preached, taught, and performed signs and wonders all in keeping with the constant theme of his ministry - the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is not a place or the church but instead it is the perfect rule and reign of God. The sinful, sick, and demon-possessed were ministered to as part of his instituting and establishing God's Kingdom or rule. The kingdom of Satan was being met head-on by everything Jesus did. He was doing exactly what he said he came to do in Luke 4:18: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed." The types of the incarceration varied, be it physical, spiritual, emotional or financial, and Jesus attacked them as evidence of Satan's rule which he came to destroy (I John 3:8). Every Christian is called to pick up where Jesus left off. Jesus told his disciples to teach future disciples to obey everything he had commanded; this was to do what he himself did (Matthew 28:18 - 20). As encountered people we are called or enlisted, so to speak, as fellow soldiers. We are called and commanded to follow in Jesus' footsteps and to do what he himself did. People need saving, healing, and delivering like never before and nothing will reveal the risen Jesus and in more precious ways than when we depend on him to equip us for these activities. It will require that we know him intimately as fellow ministers in His Kingdom and in the process Conqueror of death itself will show himself in profound new ways.

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