Every Sunday when we profess our faith we say, “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead.” We often think and speak of the resurrection in the future tense, something yet to happen. So, it might sound strange to hear what St. Paul said about the resurrection: if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. He places the resurrection in the present tense, not the future. It would seem to make more sense to us if he would have said “because Christ is risen from the dead, so will you eventually be raised” but no… he says “because Christ is risen, so are you!”

What does he mean by that? During Paul’s time, there was a debate in Jewish theology regarding the resurrection. There were two main groups, Sadducees who said there was no resurrection, and the Pharisees said there was. Paul belonged to the group of the Pharisees, so he is coming from a worldview that accepted the resurrection and the teaching was that the resurrection would be the last thing that would happen at the end of human history.

Before receiving faith in Christ, Paul would have taught that there would come a time when the world as we know it would end, and a new age, called the Kingdom of God as promised in the Old Testament especially in the book of Daniel, would be initiated. When that time came, God would appoint a mediator who would be called “the son of man” to bring lasting peace for humanity. The sign of the coming of the Kingdom of God would be that all the dead would rise, resurrect, and see God face to face.

After his encounter with Jesus, this teaching took on a different meaning for Paul. He realized that Jesus was the Son of man, which also meant the Kingdom of God was no longer something to wait for in the future, it was here now. And, if one of the signs was that the dead would come to life, and he obviously was not seeing people come out of tombs, then the resurrection had to do with more than just a future event of the physically dead being raised. Reflecting on his own experience, he realizes that death happens in two levels, bodily and spiritually. In Romans he will describe it this way “you too must think of yourself as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11)

The gospel of Luke expresses it in the parable of the prodigal son. The son having received life and an inheritance from his father leaves and wastes it all in senseless things. Realizing what he has done, he returns to the father and asks for forgiveness. The Father joyfully exclaims “let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again.”  

The resurrection of Jesus and those who share in it through baptism helps us enter into God’s time and space, which is not one dimensional. In God’s time and space, death is two dimensional as we understand that death also happens at the level of the soul through sin, and the resurrection is two dimensional as we now understand that the resurrection happens at the level of the soul, we receive new life through faith in Christ.

This new perception of reality is necessary. If death can occur at the level of the soul than I must be open to the possibility that I might be spiritually dead right now, not living to my full potential. If new life, resurrection, can occur to me right now, then I am no longer just waiting, wishing and hoping I get to receive that in the future, which means I can begin living to my full potential now, and that is the necessary state of life that God needs us to have in the world if we are to move forward.

Many Christians are stuck thinking of the resurrection as something merely for the future. When we think this way, then the goal of the Christian life becomes simply “do what you got to do to make it to heaven, to be resurrected at the end of the world.” The risk is that faith can become merely a personal goal, dependent on my personal relationship with Christ leading to the view that faith is really a private affair or something to compete for. May Christian churches seem to be constantly competing against each other to see “who will get to heaven.” Competition always leads to division, which is contrary to the Holy Spirit. For others, they risk discouragement. If the goal of my Christian faith is to get to heaven, and my struggle with sin makes me realize I am anything but a saint, it is only a matter of time before I realize “I’m just not good enough to make it heaven” and we lose faith all together.  This is not a mature Christian faith.

The harsh criticism that Paul gives to people who think this way is that their faith is in vain, that they are still in sin, they are dead, in fact he calls those who think this way “the most pitiable people of all.” Ouch! There are many breathing Christians, but not all of them are alive.

But if I accept the reality that the resurrection is not a future reward to compete for, rather a gift to live out now, then I am already living in the power of the resurrection and therefore I already have what it takes to overcome evil with good. I can direct my energy to actually living in the Kingdom of God rather than contently being frustrated from resisting sin and temptation all the time so that I can be good enough. None of us will ever be “good enough” on our own, which is why we need the gift of the resurrection here and now.

From this conviction, St. Paul will say statements like “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and “If God is with us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). These are not feel-good motivational quotes to put up on our house walls next to “eat, pray, love,” they are statements that we live in a new reality, we have what we hoped for, so the invitation from Jesus after giving his life so that we might have life in abundance is (John 10:10) is: accept it and make the choice to live!

Life is not about waiting for something better. People who live just waiting for things to change or lamenting that things are not as they hoped, are really just spiritually dead. There are many like that out there, I get to speak to many in our own community who feel stuck, and my heart aches to see how their life is just wasting away, pitiable. Life is a possibility for anyone and everyone, but first we need to acknowledge what makes us spiritually dead and be willing to die to that sin for “unless the grain of wheat falls and dies in the ground, it remains a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it yields much fruit” (John 12:24). The Christian life is about growth, and only living things can grow, so new life in the resurrection has to be experienced here and now.

 If your Christian faith is not leading you towards growth, if it is not resulting in changes in your spiritual and moral life here and now, then you are doing it wrong, your faith is in vain, you have been using the name of God in vain and it is time to claim your resurrection. How do I know if I am spiritually alive?

 The gospels of Matthew and Luke both give us the first great teaching of Jesus. In Matthew it is known as the Sermon on the Mount, or, Beatitudes, which takes place on a mountain because he is speaking to a Jewish audience who see mountains as places of the manifestation of God’s presence. Luke’s version is a little different, taking place on a stretch of level ground because he is speaking to a non-Jewish audience, God gets down to their level. Both emphasize living in the blessing of God, not as something for the future, but for the now – meaning the reward of heaven is for those who realize they already have it. The fruit of living in the resurrection here and now, i.e. you are alive, when your faith in Jesus moves you to be a blessing to others.

I can only be a blessing to others when I do not let my own limitations get in the way of serving others. Yes, as a Christian I might struggle with sin, I might have a hard time forgiving a certain individual, I might be struggling with getting my life together, but because I am alive, those things do not become obstacles for grace, I can still bless others. It is when I am spiritually dead that I let those things lead me to be a bitter person, doing nothing to bless others, or worst yet, cursing others. Pitiable. 

In Luke’s version of the beatitudes, Jesus pronounces both blessings (signs of life) and woes (signs of death). To be alive is to not fall under the false pretense that life, joy, and security can only be found in earthly wealth, health and power. We’ve all heard the sad stories of people who seemed to have it all, end their lives. There are many breathing Christians, but not all of them are alive.

To be alive is to use what you have for others. If I have wealth, use it for good – to help transform the lives of those in extreme poverty so they too can become alive, a blessing, for others and not fall under the death trap of a life of crime as the only way they can survive. If I have my fill, help transform the lives of those who are hungry so that having their fill, they can refocus their time and energy from where the next meal will come from, to how they can progress in life and be a blessing for others.

The prophet Jeremiah said, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord.” A Christian who is alive, who is mature in their faith, trust in the Lord not because of what they hope to get, but because they recognize what they have already received, the power of the resurrection. And so they live it.