Easter Meditation: Resurrection Not Resuscitation

Many of us have had near death experiences and have felt the heart pound as we realise that it was nearly all over.

If the internet is to be believed (and in principle I have no reason not to although some of them are whackos no doubt), some people have experienced death (or something like it) and then a miraculous resuscitation. They were dying or even dead, but after medical intervention or an encounter with a spiritual being they have been resuscitated, brought back to the land of the living. Depending on their religious views, they will either count themselves very lucky or very blessed and live out the rest of their days differently as a result.

But the resurrection of Jesus is nothing like any of these. The Spirit of God did not resuscitate Jesus, He did not bring him back from the dead as in some kind of over blown seance or Frankensteinian resuscitation. Jesus carried our humanity in himself through death all the way to the other side, to a totally new kind of existence. A glorious, incorruptible, indestructible, eternal existence where humanity is the the same as before and yet different.

Jesus calls all people to trust him and follow him through death into this new kind of life (aka eternal life) - Matt.16:24-25.

Will you follow him on this journey of journeys? Will you trust him? Not many do. Matt.10:37-38