Easter is soon upon us. I have been reflecting on NT Wright’s new book– Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. This is a very important book advancing the discussion that the Christian life is not just about getting ready for heaven, but the Christian faith is also about, and maybe at least right now, most importantly about, hope and life breaking into to our lives and our world right now.

God breaks into our world! That is the message of Easter. The message of John 11 and Ezekiel 37 is that God is at work. God is doing something that human cannot achieve on our own, no matter how hard we try. God is at work, bringing life. This is possible because of the transformative work of Jesus in the death-resurrection- ascension- Pentecost event.

Wright notes: “the revolutionary new world, which began in the resurrection of Jesus– the world where Jesus reigns as Lord, having won the victory over sin and death—has its frontline outposts in those who in baptism have shared in his death and resurrection (p. 249).” He goes on: “the mission of the church is the outworking, in the power of the Spirit, of Jesus’ bodily resurrection (p. 264.”

The story of Lazarus is not just about one of Jesus’ friends having his life extended for awhile. This is a story that points to the resurrection of Jesus, an event that changes everything. It is not enough to focus on the life, teachings and example of Jesus, as important of a corrective that is. We are convinced that Jesus’ resurrection changes everything and thrusts the church into a mission that is sustained and empowered by the Spirit of the risen Jesus.

We pray “your kingdom come.” This is not just hopeful thinking about a new world order that we establish. We pray this prayer expecting that the God who will make all things new is beginning that transformation even now. The church is a sign, agent and foretaste of what God want to do in the entire cosmos (p. 200).

As Easter approaches, hear the question of Ezekiel: Will these bones live? The answer: yes, in the power of the resurrection of Jesus, through the agency of the church. That is a story to proclaim, and that is a mission to join.

Jim Wallis has just written The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America. It is an excellent book. Following on the heels of McLaren’s Everything Must Change, Wallis reminds us that being followers of Jesus, being the church means that we must engage in matters that impact our society.

Jim is a strong social advocate, and along side this, there is a strong spiritual foundation. He writes: “Faith can provide the fire, the passion, the strength, the perseverance, and the hope necessary for social movements to win and to change politics. Without that, it’s just a debate over issues and ideas” (p. 21).

Do yo sometimes feel dismayed because the church seems irrelevant? This book will help you to see ways forward that make a difference.

Each time Jesus responds to the temptation by quoting Scripture. The Scripture passages come from Deuteronomy (6:13, 6:16, 8:3). These are texts produced in another wilderness experience, the wanderings of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 6 begins with the declaration, the Shema: Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one (6:4). Each of Jesus’ temptations is an attempt to undercut this primary affirmation.

Jesus, the true Israel, is being tempted to walk away from his central identity and central calling. The devil seeks to distract and divert Jesus. It is an attempt to take the easy route rather than a path that will leads to servanthood, suffering and the cross. Each time, Jesus resists the temptation, and with that resistance shouts: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul and strength. Jesus knows who he is. Jesus knows that his ministry will lead to suffering and the cross. There is no easy way.

Henri Nouwen makes this text live in his book In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership. Nouwen sees these three incidents as temptations to be relevant, and spectacular, and powerful. In Jesus’ resistance we are shown a different way. The church continues to struggle with these temptations today. The North American church wrestles to remain faithful and counter cultural. The temptation in the church is still—to be relevant, meeting “felt needs,” to be spectacular and entertaining, and to be powerful, making the gospel a weapon of force.

The church historically has honored saints and martyrs, people who have let go of their lives for the sake of others. In our day, we have tendencies to honor celebrities. Some practices of the church might raise concern: worship as passive but splashy entertainment, video venue worship starring the very popular and powdered preacher, need based evangelism that conveniently forgets ministry to the poor and the marginalized, using the Bible as a bat to push agendas that might be more political than biblical. Bryan Stone in Evangelism after Christendom notes that saints and martyrs more than revivalists and megachurch pastors are the exemplars of evangelistic virture (p. 282). In a celebrity-rich culture, this should cause us to pause, reflect, and maybe repent.

The call on the church, as we live at the margins, in the wilderness, remains the same–to die to self, to love God with all of our heart, soul and strength.

To a people walking in darkness, to a people with fleeting hope, to a people living under the oppression of personal and political burdens, Jesus says, something, someone, is coming onto the scene. Jesus’ call is simple and radical: repent, turn around, move in a new direction.

The call is personal, but never individualistic. Jesus extends the call to us to be his disciple, his follower, but in responding to that call, we enter into a community of discipleship. Jesus says: repent! Stop living as you have lived. Some (NT Wright for one) sees this as a charge to move away from violent, revolutionary attempts to overthrow Roman, and rather to engage in practices of Shalom. This may be true, but Jesus is more broadly calling people to live a whole new lifestyle, a Beatitudes, Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) type of lifestyle that operates in ways completely contrary to the ways of the Empire (Roman, and even more contemporary). Followers of Jesus are to look and act differently.

Take a look at a fairly new book—Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity, and Why it Matters by David Kinnaman. It is a stinging indictment on the impressions young Americans have of Christians. The Christian community does not fair well. Descriptions of Christians include words like—hypocritical, insensitive, judgemental. It is a tough read, but an important read.

Jesus called people to a new way of living—Repent, turn around, for the ways of the Father are breaking into the world with freshness and vitality. Ordinary people, fishermen in this case, heard the invitation from Jesus: follow me! “At once,” the text says, they dropped their nets, their livelihood and followed after Jesus.

What makes people give up their normal, comfortable, routine way of life for something risky and unknown? These fishermen dropped their lives as they knew it to follow Jesus! The kingdom is breaking in. God is doing a new thing. It won’t be about fishing anymore; now it will be about seeing something transformative happen in people’s lives and in the Empire. (See Rodney Stark’s The Rise of Christianity to see how this movement tangibly spread throughout one Empire).

There was, and there is something provocative and compelling about Jesus that causes people to drop everything in their lives. There is something provocative and compelling about Jesus’ followers when we live out the Sermon the Mount. Quietly sometimes, often slower than we would like, the ways of the Kingdom invade and transform. Lives change. Worlds change. All for the better. All for God’s glory.