Resurrection moments – here and now

It was resurrection morning and, according to the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene had just been to Christ Jesus’ sepulcher and found that the giant stone at its entrance had been rolled away (see John 20:1-10). Her beloved Master was nowhere to be seen. She went running to tell Peter and the disciple “whom Jesus loved” what she had discovered.

The Swiss artist Eugène Burnand (in the tradition that John was that disciple “whom Jesus loved”) depicted what happened next in his 1898 painting “The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection.” Burnand captured a poignant moment.

The artist’s rendering helps the viewer to imagine what may have been going through the minds of these disciples as they quickly made their way to Jesus’ tomb. Perhaps they were feeling unsettled concern. Were they remembering Jesus’ prophecy that he would be crucified and after three days rise again? They found only Jesus’ linen clothes and the cloth that had been around his head lying in the tomb.

So what did this mean for them?

Ultimately, in the days following the resurrection, they came to grow spiritually in ways that never left them. The gospel account tells us that initially the disciples went fishing – but caught nothing. The next morning Jesus was standing on the shore, and they didn’t know at first that it was him. When they told this apparent stranger that they had caught nothing, he advised them to cast their nets on the ship’s right side, and in doing so they found their nets so full that they could hardly haul them in. Then they knew it was Jesus – and he asked them to dine with him.

Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science and a devout student and follower of Jesus, describes the disciples’ experience: “Convinced of the fruitlessness of their toil in the dark and wakened by their Master’s voice, they changed their methods, turned away from material things, and cast their net on the right side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore of time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal sensuousness, or the burial of mind in matter, into newness of life as Spirit” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 35).

The disciples grew to see that Jesus’ resurrection demonstrated the fact that life truly is eternal, immortal, for Life is God, Spirit. Those experiences of spiritual insight could be called “resurrection moments” – times in which their thought rose above a material sense of life to understand not only life in God but Life as God.

It’s encouraging to think that we all can have those experiences of insight, even in the face of death. I felt some of that inspiration after the passing of a good friend. I initially found it difficult to pray for myself, as death appeared so final. Then I found that angel messages from God flowed into my thought, comforting and sustaining me.

The Bible story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead came to thought along with the meaningful interchange between Jesus and Lazarus’ sister Martha prior to that resurrection. Jesus is comforting Martha in her grief and states, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25, 26).

I saw that we are truly resurrected – lifted out of a belief of life in matter – as we follow Jesus and live in accord with the reality he taught and proved of life in Spirit, not a material body. That means we never truly die, because we are God’s beloved, eternal, wholly spiritual offspring, and our life is fully in and of God.

These ideas brought me strong peace. My friend’s life had never truly been lost, because it had never been in matter. In fact, my friend’s life was continuing right at that moment in God, the only Life there is.

I knew that the continuity of this true being included the Godlike qualities that had stood out to me about my friend – compassion, thoughtfulness, wisdom, spirituality, goodness, humility. And because these qualities originate and exist forever in God, they would always be a part of that individual as God’s cherished offspring. Those qualities represent the true life of my friend.

That powerful inspiration dissolved any grief. It helped me to rise from the belief of death into a resurrected sense of life in God.

We can experience the power of God that brought about Jesus’ resurrection. And this can begin with resurrection moments here and now, coupled with joy.

Adapted from an article published in the April 3, 2023, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.