- When Liam Neeson rescues his kidnapped daughter in Taken
- When Luke Skywalker miraculously destroys the Death Star
- When Prince Phillip wakes Sleeping Beauty
- When Harry Potters is revived and defeats Voldemort
- When Neo got up and defeated Agent Smith
- When the USA won the Miracle on Ice
- When Aslan rose up
- When Chuck Norris does anything
These great stories, real and imagined, knit together our lives. The hero, against all odds, beaten and bruised, breaking forth to victory and sharing it with the world.
All of these stories touch our very souls because they are the tiniest pointers toward the Greatest Hero breaking the Greatest odds to win the Greatest victory to make us into the Greatest Bride.
This is Jesus. Even his closest friends and family gave him no chance whatsoever. He was the ultimate underdog because he faces and was apparently defeated by the one opponent that was undefeated. No chance. It was over. He lost and the buzzer sounded.
Until it wasn’t.
Somehow dawn broke forth. Somehow the sun came up. Somehow the absolutely impossible happened. Jesus Rose.
In their culture you had to wait three days before a person was “dead dead”. Theoretically they could “wake up” in the first two days. He could be in a coma or just almost dead (like when Miracle Max said that Westley was “mostly dead” in The Princess Bride). But on day three, all hope was lost.
Until it wasn’t.
Submitting to being DeadDead, Jesus paid the insurmountable payment we owed in order to give us the inconceivable and irrevocable gift of Himself, and life everlasting.
Jesus rising from the dead means that we will also be raised.
1 Corinthians 6:14
And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
AND…it’s not just for the afterlife, but for today! We HAVE been raised (in addition to the fact that we WILL be raised). Our hope and love is secure, which utterly changes our lives in the here and now. This world has no more power over us. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live and love supernaturally TODAY! For HIS glory.
Romans 6:4
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
And all of this because JESUS IS RISEN!
If you want to read more on this, John Piper has beautifully listed HERE 10 Results of the Resurrection.