On the Third Day...the world changed forever

On the Third Day Jesus rose from the dead 

Why not raise awareness to one of, if not the biggest, events of history with my first blog post of the new year?!

If the Christian faith is true, that is, if through the tragic event of the cross followed by the act of resurrection and ascension, God’s only Son, Jesus, not only introduces God’s new creation, but through the Holy Spirit re-humanizes humanity, then any idea of the good, the true or the beautiful should go through the One who has changed the course and foundation of history more than any one person or event. God’s dramatic in-breaking revealed in the Bible cannot simply be observed. It requires participation. God invites all of the actors of the world’s stage to participate in the Trinitarian life of God. The elevation of the human to the beauty of its imago Trinitatis is accomplished through the performative expression of God in Christ. Thus, the beauty and profundity of God’s descent to humanity is witnessed in His elevation of the human through the ascension of the Son. As Hans Urs von Balthasar notes, "Christ, God’s greatest work of art, is in the unity of God and man the expression both of God’s absolute divinity and sovereignty and of the perfect creature."

The performance of Christ—His incarnation, life, death, and resurrection—is, according to Dorothy Sayers, “the greatest drama ever staged.” The Biblical script communicates the relational reality of faith that, as Sayers wrote, is “the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man.” If this is true, and I believe it to be, then how should God’s drama, as revealed in Christ through the Holy Spirit, influence and guide the way we are church?

Might this be the year the world witnesses the profound performance of the church of Christ as we live out the reality of the Third Day? And in so doing, change the world forever...