If “this changes everything” then we should be completely different.

As we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, we celebrate a singular moment in history where a man died and then personally overcame that death and returned to life.  This momentous occasion sent a shockwave through the world that is still echoing powerfully over two thousand years later.  The man’s own followers had not seen it coming and were rousted from their grief and despair over his death when they finally grasped the news of what had happened.

Today, like then, many still can’t wrap their head around this event.  Coming to understand and accept Jesus having the power to defeat the one enemy no other person, no matter how strong or intelligent has ever managed, changes everything for you.  Death, the guaranteed end of each of us, suddenly is beatable.

The question is, if This Changes Everything, have we been changed?

Knowing the power of death is defeated should transform how we relate to every other power we are up against.  The final victory represents every victory.  The forces of this world are suddenly not something we have to fear or concern ourselves with.  This is why the Scripture reminds us that we “wrestle not against flesh & blood.”   Yet we live in a day when many of those who claim a grasp of the Resurrection are deeply concerned with trying to find victory over flesh & blood.  The Kingdom not of this world is suddenly very much of this world and time, effort, money, and sermons are all aimed at a current cultural battle.  Much like most other interest groups and causes.  The Kingdom reduced to political party, campaign, civil power, and cultural domination.

How is that any different than all the kingdoms of man over the span of human history?

The Roman Empire saw many factions, competitions, civil wars, and striving for power against enemies.  So did Egypt which saw different subgroups try to take power over one another.  Here in America, our bloodiest war ever was when two groups fought over who would control the government and define the national values.

This is not different, this is the same.

So did the resurrection “change everything” for us, or did we simply take it and decide to be like everyone else? 

Jesus’ enemies in the Jewish leadership saw him as a threat, but since they had no civil power to kill him, they needed Roman buy-in.  So they tried to pass Jesus off to Rome as a political player who threatened Rome’s power.  This was the heart of Pilate’s questioning of Jesus.  Pilate couldn’t care less about Jesus’ thoughts about God & a heavenly kingdom.  He just wanted to figure out if Jesus was seeking to contest Rome.

Jesus answers him very clearly with a full, unambiguous answer.  

“Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” “

(John 18:36)

Jesus represented something completely new.  He called it His church.  A kingdom that lived here but was not OF here.  A kingdom not defined by ethnicity, or earthly culture, or national boundaries.  A kingdom that wasn’t set up to compete against other “flesh & blood” kingdoms but instead one that would capture the hearts & minds by “taking every thought captive” and tear down “speculations & every lofty opinion raised up against the knowledge of Christ.”

This is why the Word of God is our sword, not some terrestrial weapon, and certainly not an excuse to fall back to terrestrial weapons.  You can never win a heart with a terrestrial weapon.  They are ineffective in winning any battle for the Kingdom that is not of this world.  

Over the centuries since He was here, Jesus’ kingdom has thrived the most where it lacked access to the tools and power of the earthly kingdoms.  Deprived of the ability to use terrestrial kingdom means, the people of God have instead clung to the Hope of the Resurrected Jesus and the power of His Word and have seen many come to know him.  The church has greater vitality in China, and Iran, than in the West for the simple reason that they are free from the temptation to return to the Kingdom of this world.  

Jesus told Pilate that you could tell the difference in the Kingdom because His followers weren’t fighting for his release.  Even though the resurrection was still days away, Jesus was already living His Kingdom.  His resurrection would be the final establishing moment.  When He defeated death by His own power, he completed the establishment of His Kingdom for us.

This Easter, as we celebrate the Resurrection, are we completely different?  Are we completely distinct from the kingdoms of this world and their values, methods, and styles?

Did this truly change Everything?