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Jesus said to her, “Who are you looking for?”
Alleluia! Jesus Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
᛭ INI ᛭
τί ζητεῖς; ἡμεῖς πάντες ζητοῦμεν τίνα. We’re looking for our lives, our kids, our spouse, our job to be a certain way. We have certain expectations, or maybe want things to be different. Maybe you’re not right now. Just give it time. We’re often discontent, restless, always going somewhere, looking for something, trying to be someone.
Maybe it’s the opposite! τίνος ἀποτρέχεις; πάντες ἀποτρέχομεν ἀπὸ τίνος, trying to escape where we are, what we used to be, who we’ve become: by working too much, watching too much, spending too much, eating too much, drinking too much. Anything to avoid you, ignore your life, forget what you’ve done or fail to do. But drowning where you’re at in life affects how you treat your spouse, your kids, your family, friends, neighbors, your coworkers, strangers, and enemies!
τίνα ζητεῖς; Is it Jesus? The resurrected Jesus? Mary didn’t expect it, didn’t expect Him!—neither did Peter or John. They were all looking for a stone cold dead Jesus. No one’s looking for a living, breathing Jesus.
We don’t either! Maybe a Jesus we like, who lines up with our personal preferences not the resurrected Jesus of the Bible… So, we live like we do—like dead people stay dead, like Jesus is still dead! We live like His resurrection’s a fairy tale. If you do live like Jesus is risen from the dead, then thank the Spirit for that! “No one can say Κύριος Ιησούς except in the Holy Spirit.”
Living like Jesus is alive is behaving like your sins and your neighbor’s sins, even those done against you, are paid for by Jesus’ death. It’s living like everyone who trusts Him is declared “not guilty” before God only because of His resurrection. So, there’s no reason to live life with “the old leaven of malice and evil,” as Paul says, no more sins or grudges, because “Christ your Passover Lamb has been sacrificed.” So, tell someone, you know who: “I forgive you” and actually mean it! Not because they deserve it or it’s better for you if you do, but because they need forgiveness and need you to say, “I’m forgiving you only because Jesus ‘was dead but is now alive forevermore.’”
Living like Jesus is alive means you don’t fill your life with “the cares and riches and pleasures of life”! “For this life and the future life are two enemies. This life advertises adultery, corruption, love of money, and dishonesty. The future life will say farewell to these things. We can’t be friends of both. We must say farewell to this life to experience the other. We say that it’s better to hate things here, since they’re short-lived and perishable, and to love those things, which are good and imperishable. For when we’re doing Christ’s will, we’ll find rest. Otherwise, nothing will rescue us from eternal punishment, when we ignore His commandments. For Ezekiel says that if Noah, Job, and Daniel would rise from the dead, they wouldn’t rescue their children from captivity. And if such righteous men cannot rescue their children by their own righteousness, then by what sort of confidence will we enter God’s Kingdom, unless we cherish Baptism pure and undefiled? Who will be our Advocate,” unless we’re found possessing Christ’s holy and righteous works by faith?” (2 Clement 6)
So, Jesus being alive means something for your relationship with Him. Because He’s risen, the Bible’s really His Word that gives us life, so we, idk, actually read it! So then, sermons must preach Christ crucified and raised “as of first importance,” because when they do it’s Jesus preaching, as He says, “Whoever listens to you is listening to Me.” It means Baptism really saves your kids, and they weren’t before that… Baptism is your daily gift, too. (Time fails to cover that…) Because He’s alive, He’s speaking forgiveness right into your ears in Absolution. Because He’s alive, He’s speaking the Words at Communion to bless His bread and wine so they’re His body and blood for you to eat and drink for the forgiveness of all your sins.
To live like He’s still dead is to live like Communion’s just bread and wine and you don’t need it to be a Christian, though Jesus says, “If you don’t eat My flesh and drink My blood, you don’t have any life.” It means to skip church, skip sermons or pay no attention, to skip reading or studying your Bible. We say the Bible’s, but our behavior proves that it’s just lip service. The Bible’s literally Jesus speaking to you, telling you all about Him or your need for Him, too…
To live like He’s still dead is to behave like baptism isn’t life and death for your kids, like absolution’s meaningless, like you’re not forgiven, like other people aren’t forgiven, like they don’t need you to forgive them. To live like He’s dead means to grieve like those people out there are dead and gone forever. No wonder we’re depressed, anxious, hopeless, joyless, unforgiving, ungenerous, unbelieving!
“But, in fact, Christ has been raised from dead!” He’s actually alive! So, living like He’s dead is living a lie! Since He’s actually alive, it doesn’t matter what you’re looking for or who you’re looking for. He’s looking for you! He calls you by name, too, makes you His own, in Baptism. He continually says all His forgiveness, all His life, and all His salvation is “FOR YOU”—“My Bible, My Word, My sermon, My absolution, My body and blood for you. In all these ways I cling to you and you to Me, and you’ll rise from the dead and live forever, just like Me!”
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