Easter Hope: Living a Cross-Shaped Resurrection Life

The cross and resurrection are not two separate events because we, our lives, are meant to look like and pay be patterned after Jesus' life. And insofar as we follow this pattern of death, of baptism, of dying to ourselves, then we are shaped after Jesus' life. And then and then because we are, Jesus' life didn't end in the grave, did it? It didn't end on the cross, but he was raised, he was exalted. [01:15:50] (40 seconds)  #CrossAndResurrectionPattern

The cross was not just for Jesus. The cross also is for us, provided that we go through the cross, then we also will live with him. That's why baptism is such an important element of the Christian life. Because in baptism, you're drowned and then you come back to life. That is the dying that represents the dying to yourself, the dying to sin, the dying to this world, and now you are attached to Jesus. [01:13:59] (34 seconds)  #BaptismDyingToLive

You can't separate labor from birth. You can't separate the cross from resurrection. And in our lives, that's often what we do is we forget that the two are not different things. They're two parts of the same story. If Christ was raised, nothing else matters. This is what the bible calls momentary afflictions in comparison to the glory that will be ours in Christ Jesus. [01:18:58] (34 seconds)  #CrossEqualsResurrection

What does this cross shaped resurrection life look like? Well, I think it looks a lot like what we're already doing, from people serving in the in the greeters and the hospitality, thanklessly from week to week, from people within the congregation making meals for one another and just providing that extra help, from people helping loved ones who are in a difficult stage in life daily to carry some of that burden for them. [01:29:39] (35 seconds)  #CrossShapedEverydayService

And he brought that thorn to the lord three times, he says, but I wonder if that number three isn't symbolic for a number of perfection as it often was in the ancient world, that he brought it to the Lord many times. And finally, the Lord told him, no, I'm not gonna take it away from you. In fact, he says, this thorn, this weakness in the flesh is going to be the way that I'm gonna display my power through you. [01:09:57] (27 seconds)  #ThornToPower

That's the way God had always intended for it to be. That is the pattern of the cross. That is the pattern of Jesus' life, to love in a sacrificial way, not thinking about ourselves, not taking advantage for ourselves, not measuring ourselves according to status or prestige or power or wealth the way that the world does, but not thinking about ourselves of emptying ourselves and serving and loving those around us and the world around us. That is the pattern that God had intended for us to be and to live. [01:15:14] (36 seconds)  #SacrificialJesusPattern

See, the problem is that we often isolate resurrection from the cross. Think about it like this. When a woman is in labor when a woman is in labor, it's a painful experience. I don't speak from from firsthand experience, but I speak as an eyewitness of that experience so I can say, it is a painful experience. You know, even given all the medical technology and anesthesia that we have today, it's still a painful experience. [01:17:38] (34 seconds)  #LaborPainToBirth

That back half of that story, because the front half, if our story matches Jesus' and is aligned with Jesus and united with Jesus, then that back half becomes our story too. See, the cross and resurrection are not two separate events. They're two parts of the same story, two halves of the same whole. And because it was Christ's story and our story is a part of Christ's story, then that becomes our story as well. [01:16:30] (39 seconds)  #UnitedWithChristsStory