Jesus has risen. A new life has started, not just for him but also for us. Sin and death are overcome.
But what exactly is this new life. It’s not just the old life restarted. Jesus is clearly different from how he was before, that’s the point of most of the post-resurrection stories. And for us, what is our new life, how is it different – because if it isn’t different it cannot be new.
What can it even mean to have a new life? It isn’t that we are richer, or smarter, or more beautiful. What is it that changes about our life when we are reborn with Jesus?
The basic ingredients of our lives are our relationships. In fact we could really say our lives are our relationships. Without relationships we would hardly be alive in any recognizable way. And we should note that when we sin it is our relationships that are in some way damaged, whether a relationship with another person, with ourselves, or with God.
So this all fits together. New life is a matter of new relationships. Conquering sin is about fixing relationships. In his resurrection Jesus entered into a new relationship with the Father and with the world. We enter into a new relationship with Jesus, and the Father, with each other, and with ourselves.
The new life of Easter is not some clever metaphor. It’s a practical reality. We are given a new start in all our relationships, and if we follow Jesus we are given the means to deepen and broaden those relationships.
We have become familiar with the idea that we are stardust – which is poetic and true. But it’s more important to realize we are love. We are made up by those who have loved us and those we love. Without those loves we are nothing – our selves could not exist. The most basic of these relationships is the one with God. In the resurrection that relationship is renewed. However damaged it was before is irrelevant, it is completely replaced, made new, made again. And so it can be for all our other relationships. We just have to recognize that Jesus has conquered death and sin. We are not bound to whatever we were, whatever we may have done, whatever mistakes we may have made. Along with Jesus we are a new creation, perfect as a newborn baby, with every possibility ahead of us.