Easter Life & Human Dignity

I’d like to begin this morning with Genesis. Our genesis, humanity’s beginnings. 

In Genesis 2, the 2nd description of our creation, God is said to have breathed life, ruach, divine spirit, into the lump of divine-like clay we humans once were. That breath of life enlivened us, gave us life, a life infused with God’s own breath.

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, there is a tradition known as iconography. The faithful venerate painted icons of Christ, Mary, the saints. This veneration of icons is rooted in the belief that the spirit of the depicted figures, such as Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints, somehow breathes through their icons; these channels of divine grace and living presence enable believers to commune with the holy figures they depict.

Well, in Genesis 2, the idea is that we, each human being, is an icon of God. God’s spirit breathes life in us and through us. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, that the life of God breathes in us doesn’t make us God. Not at all. Nor does it make every life well-lived or good in practice or reality. Our spiritual lungs are infected with sin. And so, God’s breath, because of sin’s infection, is filtered through imperfect, tinged spiritual lungs that need the healing of Christ. 

Christ via the Cross heals our spiritual lungs so we can more purely breathe in and out the life of God. This in turn heals our hearts, giving way to the good life.

I say all of this to proclaim the Easter truth. The Christian faith, like the Jewish faith that gave rise to it, is all about life and life’s sacredness!

We see this focus on life in the very language used to define God. God is spirit. Spirit is the same word in Hebrew and in Greek for breath. God is breath. God is life. 

Christ too pointed to life as definitive. Life is who Christ is. In John 14:6, Jesus says, I am the way. I am the truth. I am - what? - the life.

And then in John 11, Jesus makes the Easter truth perfectly clear:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Christ is the life?

What life?

The life God gave us in the very beginning! 

Christ gives that life back!

Through his resurrection, Jesus gives us life and life eternal.

This eternal life will mean our own resurrection in the end.

Eternal life – that’s what resurrection signifies for us. We will all die, but the life given by God and restored by Christ, spiritual life, will be eternal. 

Resurrection bridges the gap between the body dying and our spirit living eternally. Upon death, our spirits will rise to meet God in Christ and experience eternal life. New heavenly bodies will soon follow. That’s what our Christian faith tells us.

But what about here and now, you ask. We have the hope of eternal life and Easter truth, but what about life here and now?

Well, eternal life is more than just about quantity of life. Living forever, defying time, that’s the quantity part of it, and that’s wonderful. But there’s a quality to eternal life we can know right now. 

Eternal life experienced here and now means a life experienced as sacred, hopeful, a life at peace. Eternal life experienced here and now means a life that knows freedom, not tyranny; love, not hate; hope, not fear.

Of course, this begs the question: What about the tyranny, hate, and fear all around us?

How does the Easter truth that life is sacred confront the realities around us where human life this very moment all around the world is devalued, demeaned, and desecrated? How does eternal life confront the present situation where for too many tyranny dictates, hate reigns, and fear controls?

Well, this is the answer I give. Easter truth must be embodied in us and move us to confront any devaluation, demonization, desecration of human life. Eternal life must be embodied in us here and now and move us to confront tyranny, hate, and fear. The eternal life we know must counteract the evils of tyranny, hate, and fear with freedom, love, and hope. 

To sum it up, life is sacred and hence is eternal! From Genesis to Revelation, that is a Christian truth that rings as clear as church bells peeling on Easter morning. God is life. Christ is Life. Easter is life. Holy is life. Worthy of honor and dignity is life.

No matter when, where, or whose, human life is to be cherished, given dignity, and always seen as sacred. 

Whenever, wherever, whosever life is devalued, demonized, and desecrated, we, an Easter people, must stand up and say, no! 

The Easter truth says no matter who you are, you are created in God’s image, infused with the eternal breath of God, and hence sacred in the eyes of God. From the saintliest figure to the worst criminal, the breath humans breathe is God given, and so every human life is due dignity. If we forget this, we forget what Easter is all about, living instead on the other side of Good Friday where death reigns and dignity entombed.

These final words – Easter is about life. Yes, about Christ’s death-defeating life, but also about Christ’s life in us. Let’s go forth from here and this beautiful day living lives of Christ, seeing others and seeking to love them, seeing hurt and pain and seeking to heal it, seeing the way of death and dehumanization and seeking to lift up the way of life and humanity.

Let us live sacred lives and struggle against those forces that ardently seek to desecrate what is sacred. Let us live sacred lives as an Easter people following the way of Jesus.

Amen.