Here is a little essay I wrote and shared at Valley Mosaic last night. It’s about why I need Resurrection, Inspired by this little  project over at patheos.

Resurrection is not just something that metaphorically or literally happened a long time ago, in a place far far away. It is something that happens. Continually. Over and over. As Wendell Berry writes in his poem, we must “practice Resurrection.” The challenge of Easter, for me, is to experience the Resurrection not just as a miraculous occurrence, but as an event that happens in my life daily.

The funny thing about Easter (or Jesus’ entire ministry for that matter) is that most people don’t realize that all of these fantastic stories we hear, e.g. Jesus healing people and rising from the dead etc., are not actually miraculous or supernatural in nature. What I mean by this is that if I were alive in the first century, theoretically, I could have physically seen Jesus heal people–I could have witnessed it with my own eyes because these things would have taken place in the natural realm. I could have taken tests and acquired empirical evidence to confirm or explain what he had done. So, as a Christian, I no longer hold to the traditional definition of “miracle,” i.e. something outlandish and impossible. As a Christian, I believe all things that are possible are possible. Essentially, I think that what we have been calling “miracles,” are actually glimpses of how things are and always were intended to be.

Interestingly enough, Jesus did perform supernatural miracles. Miracles such as grace, mercy, forgiveness and sacrificial love are truly supernatural in nature. These things cannot be seen, measured or examined, but yet they cannot be denied. These things are truly miraculous because actions like sacrificial love and forgiveness do not manifest themselves in exterior space. As Peter Rollins puts it, “A miracle worthy of the name is so radical that while in the physical world nothing may change, in the one who has been touched by it nothing remains the same.” So, whenever I refuse to hate someone who has done wrong to me, I am participating in Resurrection. Whenever someone says “I was blind, but now I see,” they are proclaiming Resurrection. When Life defeats death, Resurrection is at hand. Whenever things are looking the way they are supposed to look, that…is…Resurrection.

And that is why I need it.

Tags:faithJesusnew liferesurrectionXianity