I've been wondering how Jesus felt as He walked around in His resurrected body. Because we know His story, as well as humans can know it, we have some ability to empathize with the pain He went through prior to "He is Risen." Can we also empathize with His joy? It is the joy of overcoming. It is a joy of peace, well-being, and rest. Fear has absolutely no place in it. Regret, bitterness, and anger are all absolutely forsaken. Can we even imagine this? It seems to me that the Bible insists we do more than imagine it; we're supposed to walk in it. For me, it's only in moments of joyful, appropriate laughter or unhinged-from-time worship, or forgot-about-my-stuff community engagement that I come close to the fearless, hateless, covetless state of resurrection.
The cross is what bought this joy. Christ's resurrected body is its receipt on legs, those legs standing this second next to the Father in Heaven. We get this joy, all of it, in the end, simply by believing. I almost want to shout, "Unbelievable!" Nothing is as paralyzing as true joy. We don't what to say or what to do. We blubber and weep. Sometimes, in fact, our worship is exactly this!
Joy. It can be ours now. It certainly waits for us in the future. We, in Christ, can be more sure of it than death. Why do I almost never remember this? God, I believe. Help me with my unbelief!
No comments:
Post a Comment