Humility: Free at Last
Everything about Easter Sunday, even from a purely commercial point of view, revolves around new life. Those oblong things we call eggs mysteriously contain life inside a fragile, porous shell. We dip them in watery shades of springtime anticipating the season’s change and the promise of new life. Pairs of birds, perched on the branches of cherry blossom trees, robins and sparrows, cardinals and chickadees, protect their eggs hidden in nests and sing the songs of springtime.
After forty days of Lent, forty days spent remembering and lamenting the dark and foreboding moment that Good Friday forces us to face. Jesus, the King of the Jews, hanging beaten and bloody on the cross, finally and loudly proclaims, “It is finished!” After he breathes his last, his broken body is wrapped with care and buried in a borrowed tomb.
There is no other way because Jesus is the only way.
He is Risen!
Then, three days later, to everyone’s astonishment, the tomb is empty. Suddenly, everything begins to make sense. Jesus’s resurrection brilliantly displays what his disciples and family never seemed to understand, what Thomas doubted, and Peter denied. He is the resurrection and the life, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Jesus Christ, the glimmering thread that shines in the most forlorn and forsaken places, ties the true story together from beginning to end.
Peter reflects on the magnificence of the resurrection in his letter to the church scattered. He begins with a burst of praise. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” and later reflects on the ultimate price the Son of God paid for our ransom—his own precious blood. Through him we are believers in God, who raised him from the dead (1 Peter 1:1–5; 17–21).
Resurrection Ground
Sunday holds personal and intimate, shared and communal significance for followers of Jesus. We remember, the old things have passed away and behold new things have come. We look back and remember conversations and circumstances that brought us to faith in Christ and celebrate the memory of being born again to a living hope.
But let us never forget, this new life that we celebrate on Easter continues to transform and to make us new. Even when our eyes fade, our ears stop hearing, our voices shake and our bodies wobble, the Scriptures teach us that on the inside we remain full of sap and very green. Shriveled on the outside, brand new on the inside.
We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in him (Eph. 2:10)
This is one of the most penetrating lessons I have learned about humility. I am God’s child, born again, created to serve at the Father’s pleasure—even when I feel unqualified, unprepared, afraid, and on the brink of humiliation.
I have discovered by experience that stepping out in faith is not as simple as wearing a power color or standing tall with my head held high (although both help!) Instead, it means, as a new creature in Christ, I surrender to the call of God, even when it means I might end up looking like a fool…a fool for Christ!
Weirdly, by accepting our shortcomings and reaching out to God in our fear and trepidation, we discover an odd sense of freedom. The Copernican Revolution, remember? It is not about me or you. God has created us to glorify him in our weaknesses, just like Jesus did. He calls us into an upside down kind of freedom that allows us to champion others instead of competing, to give all of our cards away instead of holding them close, to admit failure and to forgive, and to gladly, happily, celebrate milestones—other’s and our own.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him (Rom. 6:5–10)
Jesus Is Alive!
Easter reminds us every year that Jesus conquered sin and death. He lives and reigns as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Springtime reminds us that, like the chickadees, we are now and always new creatures in Christ. We have been raised to newness of life and in humility we freely serve at the Creator’s pleasure.
