Luke 24: 36-49 (excerpts) - SH
36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Jesus is alive forevermore -- and his resurrection leads to the next promises that come in the drama of redemption: what the Father will send.
We
have received what the Father has promised (the Holy Spirit), and
therefore "we have been raised with Christ" (Col. 3: 1). We share in
the beginnings of his resurrection now.
What are resurrected people like?
"They
have suffered hurt without rancor, are gently corrective toward wrong
rather than judgmental, and do not try to set things straight as much as
order affairs lovingly, intent upon carrying along joyfully any who may
be weak, trustfully biding God’s timing. They live like people raised
from the dead; they don’t have to prove anything to themselves or to
anybody. They are not compulsive people trying to make good or to live
up to requirements. They are subject to grace alone, and act clean,
singularly pure amid all kinds of complexities that won’t go away."
(From Dr. Calvin Seerveld's meditation on Jesus' resurrection published
in Christian Courier, April 2007).
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