Awake you that sleep, and rise from the dead
“Awake you that sleep, and rise from the dead, “Awake you that sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light,” and Christ shall give you light,” (Ephesians 5:14)
We celebrate nowadays the season of the resurrection of the
Lord. Let us ask Him to bestow on us the blessings of the
resurrection in our life. As we contemplate the events of the
resurrection and the appearances of the Lord after His resurrection, we see
the magnificent power. This power fits the life to come and is much more
magnificent than the matters of this life. Christ had the glorified power and
showed the power and glory of the eternal life, which is different from that
of this life. The apostle says: “The first begotten of the dead,” Revelation 1:5.
“And He is the head of the body, the church, He is the beginning, the firstborn from
the dead. He might have the preeminence in all things,” Colossians 1:18. He was
the firstborn with this glory that fits to the eternal life. “To whom He showed
Himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty
days, and speaking of the things pertaining the kingdom of God,” Acts 1:3. The
contemplation in the resurrection makes us look for the new life and helps
us to review our values and our views of the matters of our life. This new
vision transferred the apostles to evangelists and martyrs that endured sufferings
gladly. All the believers hope the eternal life and not the matters of
this world. Let us leave our weak measures and worldly values and be
empowered by the resurrection that raises us to higher levels that is fitting
to the resurrection. “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should walk in newness of life,” Romans 6:4.
These levels surprised the unbelievers and make some of them to believe.
You struggle to do your spiritual duties from worship and resisting sin and
repeated falling and rising without the power of resurrection. On the contrary,
the resurrection raises us to a level where we will be in the presence
of Christ and His love attracts us to Him with a great force that overcomes
all barriers. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword separate us?”
Romans 8:35. “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Romans 8: 38-39. This is the new level of
the resurrection.
Before resurrection we struggle to bear others and be in peace with them.
But, resurrection transfers us to a new level where we overflow the love
and the love will overcome all weaknesses. “Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house
for love, it would utterly be contemned,” Song of Solomon 8:7.
This is level of the resurrection as the apostle said: “We know that we have
passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loves not his
brother abides in death,” 1 John 3:14.
Let us prepare our soil for seeds and planting and the Divine showers. Let
us prepare ourselves for the visitation of the Spirit and His work. Let us
increase our preparation to receive the Divine power.
“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations.
Spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall
break forth on the right hand and on the left. And your seed shall inherit the gentiles.
Your seed make the desolate cities to be inhabited,” Isaiah 54: 2-3.
Elisha the prophet said to the king of Israel: “Take the arrows. And he took
them. And he said unto the king of Israel: “Smite upon the ground.” And he smote
thrice, and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him and said: “You should
have smitten five or six times. Then had you smitten Syria till you had consumed
it. Whereas now you shall smite Syria but thrice”, 2 Kings 13: 18-19.
There are spiritual enemies that distress us. “For we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,”
Ephesians 6:12. Let us raise the level of our work to
be in the field of the resurrection and then we can
consume our enemies. The one that receives the
earnest of the resurrection in his life will enjoy the
complete victory over the enemies that exist only in
this life. After Christ's resurrection, Christ did not
meet the elders of the Jews that counseled against
Him. He did not go the Roman guards. So it is the
earnest of victory against all the evil powers. Turn to
the right side of the ship on the word of the Lord,
John 21:6, instead of your labor the whole night and
so you will be lifted into the field of the wonderful
resurrection.
Copyright © 2006 Saint Antony Coptic Orthodox Monastery, California, U.S.A. The above article may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of Saint Antony Coptic Orthodox Monastery, California, U.S.A. |
