Words of Wisdom: New Life

“New life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.” 

~Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark

Reflecting on Holy Week, my mind goes to the darkness of events. The Last Supper, the prayer said in the garden, and the betrayal of Judas all occur under the cover of darkness. Moving between and standing before Caiaphas and Pilate also take place in the dark. Then on Friday, as Jesus dies on the cross, darkness shrouds the world. And finally, there is the absolute darkness of the tomb in which the body is placed. This is where new life begins. This is where resurrection starts.

Jesus then begins his journey through death once and for all to a new and radical kind of life, a resurrected life. God did not merely resuscitate the body of the Son of Man. This gracious God of Love raised him to new life as the Christ, the Light of the world. 

Resurrection teaches us by the process of dying and rising how God transforms who we are. In this life we will all encounter what we may call smaller deaths. The end of a relationship or job, the loss of physical vitality through an accident or sickness, the crushed hopes and dreams of better days may feel like a small death, like the darkness will remain. We may not admit that the life we knew is no more and try to resuscitate it. Yet it is the dying of the old and the journey through these small deaths that bring us to new life, to a resurrected life. That is the wisdom imparted by a God of transforming love.  

J esus is risen. And he is imparting his new life to us---to you and me. One day we will draw our last breath and we will fully live into this new life given to us by Christ. For paradise after death is not so much about a place we are going, instead it is about who we are becoming. 

Alleluia, He is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia

Rev’d Thomas Ketner

St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church