Easter Sunday (year A)

To think of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth as being different from the fully orbed Christ-centered life and the will of God for every human being is to misunderstand God's intent and meaning for Jesus of Nazareth's incarnate life and the Gospel of Christ. The Bible describes Jesus as mankind’s Savior, Way-shower and Lord in the daily practical application of repentance and Spirit-based kingdom living, as human beings [Mark 1:14-15, John 4:24]. For the past 2000 years, many spiritually awake believers in all the world religions, have followed Jesus in the way of the Cross and spiritual resurrection [Mark 8:34].

Christ centered repentance, salvation and redemption, as revealed in Jesus of Nazareth is direct, dynamic, powerful and Spirit-based [John 14:6]. It remains hidden and inaccessible to those who choose not to believe. God's intended Kingdom living in Christ cannot be discerned nor experienced by spiritually deaf, spiritually blind and spiritually dead, human hearts, souls and minds.

Jesus was Christ-centered and spiritually awake. He knew that God was the only Power, Presence and spiritual Reality in his life [Luke 4:8, John 10:30]. His love for God compelled Jesus to believe and act as the Son of Man and the Son of God, in human flesh. Jesus' essential message of Easter is proclaimed by the apostle Paul in today’s Epistle, Colossians 3:1-4. It is that God as Spirit comes to all alike, as the indwelling Christ, through the spiritual core of every human being. God forever reveals Himself as the incarnate Christ to the repentant, humble and obedient person who seeks to experience God's grace and truth through their spiritual cores [john 1:14-18].

Jesus of Nazareth spoke from the heights of this spiritual perception, proclaiming the deathless reality of human life in Christ. He modeled the continuity of the individual soul, the unity of the human spirit with the universal Spirit, Our Father and the invisible Christ as incarnate and risen Lord, within all people. The startling point that Paul is making in today's Epistle is about humankind raised, lifted up and resurrected from spiritual death into spiritual life, insight, new and abundant life in Christ [Colossians 3:1].

Jesus taught and modeled the human experience of Christ crucified, resurrected, incarnate and enthroned as the true center of the born again experience and God's original plan for Kingdom living for all human kind. Paul make it clear that in kingdom living, death of mind of the flesh must always precede the birth of the mind of the spirit, in the human heart, mind and life [Colossians 3:1]. In every human experience, the mind of the spirit and mind of the flesh, war against each other. God has designed the human mind, heart and soul so that by law and human choice, giving preeminence to one will replace the other. The Bible declares that mind of the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God law. Those who are under the dominion of the mind of the flesh cannot please God [Romans 8:5-8].

In Colossians 1:25-27, Paul outline his and Jesus' mission and ministry, given by God through Christ. He declared like Jesus, that he became a minister according to the divine office given to him to make the word of God, Christ, fully known [John 1:1-5]. This mystery had been hidden from ages and generations, but is made manifest in Jesus Christ to those who believe. Spiritually awake believers who follow Jesus Christ, realize that the same intimate ‘Abba Father’ experience which Jesus had with Our indwelling Father, through Christ, is also completely ours now by faith, while living in this present life.

The Bible teaches that the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth was and is the most fully orbed human prototype of the spiritual awakened human being, our planet has ever known. The spiritually awake believer realizes that God’s changeless plan is for humankind to grasp and apply all that the risen Jesus of Nazareth has uncovered, about how God reveals Himself through Christ in the souls, hearts, minds and lives of all people [John 10:30, John 17:20-26]. That is the reason why Christ-centered, spiritually awake believers call themselves Easter people. They vow to seek and serve the risen Christ in all persons and to love their neighbors as themselves.

In Colossians 3:2, Paul declares that Easter people should focus on things above [spirit] rather than thing below [personalities]. The spiritually-awake believer’s mindsets should be steadfastly centered in Christ as the spiritual core of all humankind. As the body of Christ, through faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, Easter people do manifest eternal spiritual truth, the virtues and the gifts and fruit of the Spirit in their daily lives [Ephesians 4:11-13, Galatians 5:22-26].

Are you prepared, with God's help, to respond to and embrace the Good News of the Gospel of Christ? Will you choose to cast out your mind of the flesh? Do you seek to share your future life as an Easter person? Have you chosen to be a Christ-centered, spiritually awake follower of Jesus Christ? Are you aware that all human beings are created by God, in His image and likeness [Genesis 1:26-27]? Don't you realize that all humankind can be empowered by the Holy Spirit to co-create and further establish the spirit-based kingdom living, which Jesus revealed and modeled in our midst and within us [Genesis 1:28-31, John 14:6]?

Virtue of the week: Responsibility

Prayer of the week: My life is eternal life