I have set before you an open door which no one can shut. Revelation 3:8

Today I’m going to talk about the resurrection. Today … eleven days after Easter, we’re going to think about the resurrection of Jesus. I can’t think of a better time. To free the resurrection from Easter is to make it real. No more metaphor. No new life, no chirping birds, no rising sun, no new beginnings, no Easter songs, no pastel colors, no bunnies, no eggs, no “The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!” chants. It’s eleven days after Easter, for God’s sake. Either the resurrection affects my life today or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t then pack it up until next year. If it does, then walk through the door.

Or as John Updike has expressed so well in his poem, “Seven Stanzas at Easter”

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages;
let us walk through the door.

The impact on the lives of the disciples as well as on us is whether we walk through this door. What affect does the resurrection have on my life eleven days after Easter? What door now stands open that wasn’t there before?

The resurrection means we see Christ in a different way.
Mary Magdalene, who had loved and admired Him before, now finds herself utterly transformed by Him. She becomes different, because everything falls into place. All that He had said and had done were no longer the words and actions of a good man — it had all been given an eternal reality for her which could not be contradicted or ever destroyed. The resurrection is the playing of the trump card which tells us that if we do not treat Him with the utmost seriousness and with total reverence, it is we who are the fools.

The resurrection means we look at others differently.
It means also that we cannot look at others in the same way. Resurrection is about meeting together, participating in our faith, where He joins us. No longer is worship considered doing God a big favor by showing up. Rather, worship is an immense privilege, where we are treated with the greatest humility and reverence by the God who made us, who has smashed through the dreadfulness of death ahead of us, and who is ready always to join us. If I’m privileged, so is everyone else.

The resurrection means we can face ourselves in a new way.
Without the resurrection, we are creatures with minds that get ideas far above our station, but who nevertheless cease to exist after a few brief spins around the planet. It is the resurrection that makes what is insignificant into someone with dignity and purpose.

So this is the question for all of us today, eleven days after Easter: What door now stands open that wasn’t there before? You have to answer t because walking through that door is everything.

I have set before you an open door which no one can shut. Revelation 3:8