Sumgmu’s Monthly Message, April 2024

As we celebrate Easter, we proclaim, “Jesus Christ has been resurrected.  Let us rejoice!”  Yet, some of you may say, “I don’t have any reason for great joy in my life.”  Why do some of us rejoice and others of us do not, even if both are in similar situations?  One of the main reasons is that the former has been resurrected with Christ and the latter has not.  We are alive physically but sometimes dead spiritually.  Thus, we should continually be raised with Christ as Paul says, “We Christians die everyday and are raised with Christ everyday.”

Then, why do some of us stay in the spiritual tombs?  We may enjoy being spiritually dead or at least, have become so comfortable in our burial clothes that we cling to.  We do not want to change.  We hear Jesus shouting, “Come out!” but we pretend not to hear him.  We want to stay in the tombs with the sense of superiority, arrogance, selfishness, prejudice, and rudeness, because we are so comfortable with these burial clothes.

We say, “Include others who are different from us,” but we know it could be uncomfortable to share our lives with them.  We say, “We are equal in the name of Jesus Christ,” but we know it will cost a lot to give up our prestige and to become equal to those who we think are “inferior” to us.  We say, “Forgive others as we have been forgiven by God,” but our instinct forces us to seek revenge on them.  We do not want to change.

It is a fight between our Christian faith and our human nature.  We hear Jesus’ voice, and it is up to us whether we come out of the tombs or not.  We could continue to stay in the tombs.  However, if we do not encounter life, we will never know the joy of salvation.  We will never know what it is like to be loved by God and to love God in return.  We will never know what it is like to be forgiven and made whole, and to be at peace.

You and I should come out of the tombs in order to have the great joy of Easter.  May the Lord be with us and give us wisdom and faith so that we may be resurrected with Jesus Christ and taste the joy of salvation.  Happy Easter!

Sungmu Lee