This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

This week I’ve been rereading the four accounts of Jesus’ Resurrection in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. While some of the details vary, the basic story is unchanged. Early on the morning of the third day after Jesus’ crucifixion and burial in the tomb, several women came to anoint Jesus’ body. They found the stone rolled away, the tomb empty and Jesus gone. Jesus’ Resurrection is the singular identifying component of our faith in Him. Had the women found the Lord’s body still cold in the tomb, we would be telling a very different story. Christian faith rests on the witnessed testimony of all four Gospel writers. We believe in Jesus precisely because He rose from the grave. Paul addresses the futility of faith in Jesus if there was no resurrection.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 1.Corinthians 15:17

The Resurrection of Jesus did happen and the world changed forever. I believe that every human being since then is morally required to come to terms with Jesus’ seismic spiritual impact whether they accept the Resurrection willingly in their hearts or fight it with every ounce of rebellious pride. One accepts Jesus and the power of His Resurrection or rejects Him. Paul describes his desire to pursue Jesus,

… that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, Philippians 3:10

Today on Easter I find myself wondering about Paul’s words. “What exactly is the power of the Resurrection?” The answer is in John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus’ life was immersed in the Two Great Commandments, to love God and to love one’s neighbors. His compassion for the sick and the poor overflowed out of His love for them and all of Jesus’ ministry was the ministry of love. Love took Jesus to the cross and crushed Him with the weight of sin. Love caused Him to cry out in anguish to the Father at the end, “My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me?”

Can there be any power in the universe greater than God’s divine love? If John is right, God IS love and HIs love for the world gave Jesus to die for us, then how much greater would God’s love have empowered His Son’s Resurrection? Jesus’ tomb wasn’t empty as we think of it. It shimmered in the power of the Resurrection.

Humanity in 2018 desperately needs Jesus and that Resurrection power. We are desperate for God’s touch because the enemy attacks relentlessly and the fight for souls intensifies daily. Darkness descends, truth twists and turns like a loosened tornado and men’s hearts turn cold, just as is prophesied. More and more men reject and mock Christ’s magnificent model of love and forgiveness. Instead, culture perverts the essence of love, which is selflessness, by demeaning and dishonoring God, our Father. It blasphemes the Son whose life, death and resurrection challenge its world view.

We who believe in Christ are not just called to live as He did. We’re required by His Spirit to be witnesses to the power of the Resurrection. We’re required to love both our neighbors and our enemies, to love those who also love us and those who hatefully despise us. It is what Jesus lived out and will live out in us. This Easter Sunday may the Love of God in Christ Jesus empower us to go out and share this Gospel.