To Be Continued

1 Peter 1:17-23

I was asked the other day, "What does it mean that Jesus rose from the dead?" I didn't fully understand the question, so I asked back, "What do you mean?" Such is the kind of conversation I usually have with a lot of Christians as well as people from different beliefs.

In my experience, a lot of people don't fully understand what the significance of Jesus' resurrection means, not that I fully do either. I hear reasons like, "Because it's important that God rose him from the dead" or "It proves Jesus is God" or "It had to happen to fulfill prophecies."

Okay...but how. How is it important? How does it proven? What does it matter that a prophecy was fulfilled?

It would seem that the answers most people have been given are as deep as they are willing to think about it, as though the reasons as to why Jesus' resurrection is important only as a way to "save" others. However, in today's passage Peter gives us a great thought as to why the resurrection is important.

Peter reminds us that Jesus' resurrection helps us to trust in God - to trust that God is fully alive and wants desperately to be a part of our lives. The resurrection also helps us to believe in the fact that God exists completely, and that belief gives us the permission, or freedom, to "have genuine mutual love," and to "love one another deeply from the heart."

The life of Jesus teaches Christians how God wants us to live by caring for those in need of caring as well as sharing our lives with those around us. Christians are asked over and over to act with favor and love for the afflicted, poor, hungry, thirsty, widow, prisoner, and orphan. If, then, we are given the freedom to love through the continued life of Jesus, we, as Christians, are to do just that - continue the life and love of Jesus.

Peter reminds us that the Christ lives on through us, and it's through the Christ that we are to share our lives with others as well as share in the lives of others. It's in this way that Jesus will continue to live. It's in this way the resurrection has true meaning.

So, when asked "What does it mean that Jesus rose from the dead?", maybe we can answer with "It simply means I now have the freedom to live the life Jesus showed me. Would you like to know what that means?"