The Startling Difference the Resurrection Makes in Your Following Life

The Startling Difference the Resurrection Makes in Your Following Life

Posted on by Michele Morin

Sunday Scripture

On the first Sunday after the first full moon following the first day of spring, it’s a pretty sure thing that we’ll be having ham for dinner. When it comes to Easter, don’t confuse the arbitrariness of the celebration’s timing with the laser focus of its purpose. Easter is a celebration of resurrection.

I’ve never been clear on why ham is prominent on the menu for the occasion, but this one thing I do know: If you have all the ingredients for a ham dinner, but leave out the ham, you do not have a ham dinner. You can bake the pineapple casserole, mash the potatoes, chill the dilly beans, and pull the steaming hot cornmeal rolls out of the oven. You can even offer three choices of pie for dessert, but leave out the ham, and it’s not a ham dinner.

Resurrection is to the celebration of Easter what ham is to a ham dinner. Christ’s resurrection changes the game plan and even the identity of everyone who believes.

Easter is a celebration of resurrection.
Resurrection is to the celebration of Easter what ham is to a ham dinner. If you leave out the ham, it’s not a ham dinner.

Theology becomes startling and personal when we ponder the reality of resurrection and its impact on our following life. He who became sin for us has also become resurrection and life:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

Jesus’s costly substitution intiated a pattern of transformation. His pain, sorrow, suffering, and death became joy, victory, righteousness, and life. This transformation reverberated into the life of the Apostle Peter when he went from Betrayer to Brother. Jesus later singled him out for a one-on-one in which he was abundantly clear on Peter’s status as Follower and Message Bearer.

Resurrection power has lost none of its efficacy in the centuries since Jesus’s heart resumed its cadence, his lungs re-inflated, and his eyes opened in a pitch dark tomb. As we sit down to our ham dinners today (complete with ham, I hope), let’s also embark upon a full celebration of Easter, complete with resurrection! Jesus became sin so that we could become righteous. In light of this, I have a challenge for us all:

Let’s become “the righteousness of God!”

Not perfectly, of course. At least not today.
But let’s quit making excuses for our failure to manifest the Fruit of the Spirit and for our pale adumbration of the Love of God by which we are, supposedly, identifiable. I’m going to be meditating on this prayer for peaceful change as I ponder the transforming power of resurrection.

I invite you to join me:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

Oh, Divine Master, grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love,
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen

Holding you in the Light,

Resurrection power has lost none of its efficacy in the centuries since Jesus’ heart resumed its cadence, his lungs reinflated and his eyes opened in a dark tomb. As we sit down to our ham dinners today, I have a challenge for us: “Become the righteousness of God!” (2 Cor. 5:21)

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Published by Michele Morin

Michele Morin is a Bible teacher, writer, reader, and gardener committed to the truth that women can become confident Christ-followers and students of God's Word. She has been married to an unreasonably patient husband for thirty-plus years, and together they have four sons, four daughters-in-love, and five adorable grandchildren. Michele loves hot tea and well-crafted sentences, poems that stop her in her tracks, and days at the ocean with the whole family. She laments biblical illiteracy and advocates for the prudent use of “little minutes.” She blogs at Living Our Days, and you can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

51 thoughts on “The Startling Difference the Resurrection Makes in Your Following Life”

  4. We did not have ham this year (we rarely do), but I appreciate the analogy anyway. The true meaning of Easter often gets out of focus with all of the new dresses and other festivities.
    Thanks for the reminder that the power of the Resurrection “has lost none of its efficacy.” I could use a little of this transforming power!

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  5. Happy Easter, Michele! I don’t think ham is a traditional Easter meal here (and I’m intrigued by the pineapple casserole, which I’ve never heard of!) but I totally agree, the resurrection makes all the difference. That is one part of Easter that we definitely can’t leave out.

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  6. We had our ham dinner after church yesterday after church. My grandfather made the most amazing ham in the world. He’s home with Jesus now, but he left that recipe with us. You’re right, there’s no Easter without the resurrection! Life is worth the living because He lives!

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  7. Kind of like Christmas without Christ, eh? although I’ve never eaten ham, I still get the point! The secular world does a great job of making holidays secular, but for me, Easter will always be about the empty tomb.

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  8. A wonderful and worthy goal – to become the righteousness of God. Will that still work even if we had steak and crabcakes (as requested by my grandsons) for Easter dinner? 🙂

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  13. A blessed season indeed. My Resurrection Sunday was spent at work. Illness pays no attention to the calendar or celebrations, and this past weekend was no exception. Prayers for safety and good health for you and your loved ones .

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      1. Thank you—I guess my tone isn’t very “thankful” in my brief post! There are many who have poured themselves out through this pandemic, I am certainly not alone.

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  14. I was remarking this last Easter that I was so glad ham was deemed clean in the NT. 🙂 I don’t know how it got to be associated with Easter, or even spring, but I do look forward to it.

    It’s so true we can get so caught up in the “side dishes” of Christmas and Easter and miss the main purpose.

    I had to look up “adumbration.” 🙂 I so agree with this: “Let’s quit making excuses for our failure to manifest the Fruit of the Spirit.” The spirit of this age seems to be a “bless this mess” mentality with no progress toward getting out of the mess.

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  15. Michele, I am so grateful (!!) to not have read this post until this morning as it is so timely for me. So much truth packed into this post – I could quote and highlight line after line. I just had a conversation yesterday that went along this very same train of thought. May we guard our hearts and be and live like the people we profess to be – may we be more Christlike today than we were yesterday. I am joining you in prayer, friend. Thank you for linking up as this post blessed me!

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  18. I so loved that you added that prayer right after this line: “But let’s quit making excuses for our failure to manifest the Fruit of the Spirit and for our pale adumbration of the Love of God by which we are, supposedly, identifiable.”

    Sowing love – that’s our job! Father, help me do it!

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  20. “If you have all the ingredients for a ham dinner, but leave out the ham, you do not have a ham dinner.” Well, Michele … I think you have just given me my new favorite Easter parable. It reminds me of Easter baskets geared toward football fans or game lovers or chalk artists. They’re cute, but pretty meaningless if the weekend goes by without a mention of the true meaning of the holiday. Your call for personal, peaceful change is spot on and so very timely.

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  21. Thank you for sharing at #OverTheMoon. We appreciate your shares. They have been Tweeted Pinned. Have a lovely week. I hope to see you at next week’s party too! Please stay safe and healthy. Come party with us at Over The Moon! Catapult your content Over The Moon! @marilyn_lesniak @EclecticRedBarn
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  22. I hope you had a lovely Easter Michele. It’s funny you mention a ham dinner as I’m quite sure that pre-covid, Easter dinner at my grandparents typically featured ham. I’ve never thought further about it, other than enjoying our time together. Thank you for joining us for #mischiefandmemories

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  23. Your final quote is similar to one of my favourite hymns, to ask for help to make the world a better place and be a light when others are in darkness. Thanks for linking up with #MischiefAndMemories

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