The resurrection of the body is not just something that will happen after our death and after the final judgment but is something that the scriptures promise will happen to those who live in Christ Jesus and have entered into a new life in baptism. St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans: “Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” (Rom 6,3f) The resurrection is not just a “rising from” bodily death that ends our life on earth, but it is also a “rising from” a death that results from sin. Sin causes death. Scripture is clear on this point. This is not a death that ends our life on earth but a death that separates us from the source of life that is the Spirit of Christ. Sin acts upon us to destroy the life of the Spirit within us. When we are in a state of persistent sin, not believing and not trusting in God’s mercy, we become one of the “living dead”. We enter into a grave of non-life, a place of persistent darkness and emptiness. Jesus tells the people in the gospel of John, chapter 8: “You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” (Jn 8,23ff) We do not want to die in our sins but we want to die to sin and be free from sin in our life, living our life fully in the Spirit of Christ.
When we sin, we become slaves to sin and we lose our self-will. A person that has lost their self-will, has become “soul-less” and is a slave of a force of evil. We become a physical being with no spiritual life. We recognize that a person can become one of the “living dead” when they are living in a persistent state of sin. Today St. Paul tells us, “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.” (Rom 8,10) When our bodies are dead because of sin, the one who raised Jesus Christ from the dead can give new life to our mortal bodies through the Spirit that dwells in us. St. Paul tells us: “Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 6,11)
God, the Father, wants us to have life in the Spirit and to not dwell in the darkness and death of sin but rather he wants us to live in the newness of life. Our new life begins when we are baptized into Christ Jesus and freed from the slavery to sin. Jesus challenges Martha when she is thinking only of the future life of resurrection on the last day, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (Jn 11,25f) Jesus came that we might have life now, and have it in abundance through the Spirit of life that is given to us in baptism and which opens for us the grace and blessing to live in the newness of life now. If we are dead because of sin, we need to believe in Jesus who can free us from sin and lead us into a new life of grace, even now while we are on this earth, by sharing in his resurrection to new life. Do you believe this?
The Lord speaks to us through Ezekiel in our first reading today, “O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.” (Ez 37,12ff) This promise of our Lord seems to indicate a type of resurrection of the body that takes place in this life. God promises to free us from the graves that we live in on this earth and settle us into a new life in which we live in his presence, set free from the bonds of death. God has the power to free us from the death of sin and give us back our wills, our souls, our spirit and our freedom through the indwelling Spirit of new and eternal life that is promised in Christ Jesus.
You might be walking around on this earth but that does not mean that you are truly alive. If you are living in a state of sin you are a slave to sin, the Spirit cannot dwell within you and you are dead in your sins. During this time of Lent we must scrutinize our life situation and see if we are truly alive. You may be physically fine but spiritually dead. A good indication of this is that you have no spiritual life. You may have desires of the flesh but none of the spirit. You hunger to fulfill your physical urges but have no appetite for the things of the Spirit. Our world today, with its materialism, promotes this type of life in the flesh without any spiritual awareness.
Jesus wants to call you to a new life. He has a new life prepared for you. God wants to put a new spirit within you that will give you a new life of faith. Like Lazarus we might be all bound up in the burial clothes of death and maybe there is even a stench of death about us. Jesus wants to untie us and set us free. All we have to do is respond to the call of Jesus in his word and to come out of the tomb of death and enter into a new life. Jesus reveals to us today in his word, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (Jn 11,25)
Like the illness of Lazarus, our spiritual illness caused by sin does not have to end in death. Jesus says to his apostles, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (Jn 11,4) God’s glory is manifest in the loving sacrifice of Jesus who frees us from the bondage of sin and gives us a new life in the Spirit of Christ Jesus, a life that is eternal and that will never experience the death of the soul. Jesus tells his disciples, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” (Jn 11,40) All we need respond is, “Yes Lord, I believe,” and come out of the tomb of sin and death and begin a new life in Christ. Believe in the resurrection of the body. Live life in the fullness of God’s grace, in the abundance of our life in Christ, the resurrection and the life, and glorify God in the joy of the Spirit who gives us new life. Amen!