He is risen! — He is risen indeed!
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By Josh Leonard, Dean of Spiritual Formation & Discipleship
He is risen! — He is risen indeed!
As we enter into the Easter season, this familiar call and response will likely be something each of us hear as we step into spaces alongside believers. The response is almost instinctual for many of us as we recognize that the natural flow of our calendar has brought us back to this time of year – where we remember the work that Jesus accomplished on the cross and celebrate together the resurrection of our Savior.
But a question I have been asking myself leading up to Easter this year is this: is there a deeper value to us in this traditional Easter Acclamation?
I was struck by this thought recently as I stood in the midst of 500 other men all worshipping Jesus together at a men’s conference. One moment I was singing, and the next I found myself standing silently and listening to the words they sang. Letting the words they were saying wash over me in that moment, I found the Lord using the voices of these men to speak the truth of His Word to the lies that I realized that I had begun to let settle into my mind.
The enemy is so crafty in the way he introduces these lies. A small deviation from the truth that sets our sights just slightly right or left of center—and then we begin walking in that new direction, not realizing until much later how far we have strayed. These lies of the enemy turn our gaze back toward the ever-increasing pace of our day and the never-ending to-do list that rests in the back of our minds. The noise that keeps us from even considering taking a few moments to break away with our Creator. Where we begin to operate out of routine movements and whatever soothes our feelings.
Did you see it there—that ever-so-subtle lie? It’s the one that the enemy loves to use again and again. The one that he has used since the beginning—that your hope rests in you and you alone. Your hope for your life is rooted in your merit, in the way people talk of you, in the platform you build both in the digital world and the physical world. Keep doing but do it faster. So you can accomplish more. Prove your worth.
These lies that we see surrounding us in our culture today are centered on hope. And as we approach Easter, we will likely hear much about the hope that we have in Jesus. We read in Paul’s letter to the Romans about this very hope as he says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16, NIV). Through Jesus, we have hope for our eternity.
And also for today.
The resurrection of Jesus provides for us our way to be reconciled to God and to spend forever with Him. This is a beautiful and foundational truth of our faith. But this hope is not one that we simply wait to receive once we enter into eternity, while spending our days here on earth wandering without purpose. Christ’s resurrection gives us hope for today.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading…” (1 Peter 1:3-4). In the midst of the various hardships and difficulties of this life, Peter pushes us to a deeper understanding of the resurrection of Jesus.
We do not walk this life simply going through the motions. We fight the lies of the enemy and the temptation to fall prey to the hopelessness of our own emotions by following the charge from the author of Hebrews: to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith…” (and don’t miss this) “…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
This living hope brought by the resurrection of our Savior not only applies to our eternity but is the very hope that we run this race of life with today. I pray that as we celebrate this Easter, you are drawn to a place of reflection. A remembrance of the work that Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross—that by rising again three days later, He defeated death and provided for us a way to be reconciled back to the Father.
And that as you sit gratefully in this hope in Jesus, that you walk in that hope today. That the truth of His Word would penetrate our hearts and minds to fight the lies of the enemy that so subtly begin to cloud our view. That we would be reminded that the hope found in Jesus Christ matters for eternity, and it matters for today.
For He is risen.
He is risen indeed.