Special Devotion by VCS Spiritual Life Director DJ Jenkins
As the Village Christian community enters Easter Break, we do so with the good news of Good Friday and Easter greeting us this blessed Holy Weekend.
A week ago for our Easter Chapel, I shared with the middle and high school students reflections from the Apostle Paul on how the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead should affect how we live and treat one another. In 1 Corinthians 15, a whole chapter dedicated to the reality of the resurrection, Paul says this about how he is living:
“If the dead are not raised at all…why are we in danger every hour? I face death every day…” – 1 Corinthians 15:29b-31a
Paul is no doubt the most significant Christian missionary in history. The first-century churches he planted and helped grow literally ended up changing the Roman Empire, and indeed the world. And during his ministry, he faced incredible persecution and suffering, more than most of us could ever imagine. Tradition teaches us that he eventually gave his life for the good news of the resurrection by being beheaded in Rome.
And in the 1 Corinthians passage above, Paul tells the Church in Corinth that the reason he went through it all is because he met the Risen Christ. Otherwise, why go through it all? If the dead are not raised, why live a life devoted to Jesus, especially when it is not easy to follow Him (as it often is not!)
Paul continues to share how the resurrection should change how we live moment by moment and how we treat one another:
“If the dead are not raised, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived; ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’ Come to your senses and stop sinning…” – 1 Corinthians 15:32b-34a
With a quote from Isaiah 22:13, Paul essentially tells the Corinthians, “If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then how you live doesn’t matter at all. Party it up! For there is no Risen Christ to judge and no true consequence to how we live.” For our own day, we could say if Christ didn’t rise from the dead, it doesn’t matter if you’re cruel to others. It doesn’t matter if you exert power over them and use them for your own selfish ends. It doesn’t matter if you build your life on wealth and possessions. It doesn’t matter if you build your life on the perfect image and maximum social media followers. It doesn’t matter if you build your life on academic achievements and prestigious recognition. It doesn’t matter if you build your life on pursuing whatever impulses you have to feel good. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
But Paul shouts to the Corinthians and shouts of us today: “Do not be deceived! Christ IS risen! It all DOES matter! So stop living like it doesn’t!” Every single human alive will one day stand before the Risen Christ. And He will ask us all, “How did you live? How did you treat one another? And whom did you trust with your soul?”
The good news of Easter, that Christ is risen and alive today, means the only One who is trustworthy with our souls, our whole lives, and our eternity is the One who is risen. And that good news means every way we treat one another, everything we build our life upon, and every impulse we seek to control, should be shaped by the Kingdom of that risen Christ, and the good news that He loved us and gave Himself up for us (Galatians 2:20).
Happy Easter, Village Christian! Christ is risen!