Hail the Resurrection

Happy sixth day of the Easter season! Here's the fifth verse of "Christ the Lord is Risen Today:"

Hail the Lord of earth and heaven, Alleluia!
Praise to thee by both be given, Alleluia!
Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia!
Hail the Resurrection, thou, Alleluia!

In John 11:25-26, Jesus has met Martha on the road after Lazarus' death. Martha has told Jesus that had He been there, Lazarus would not have died. This is how Jesus replies:


Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Some older sources even just say, "I am the resurrection." That's the key part here. Jesus is the Resurrection; Jesus is the One who rises again and in doing so allows us to rise again. We were dead; in Christ, we are alive.

In the synoptics, when the Sadducees question Jesus about resurrection, He gives a long response, but it ends with something like this: "God isn't the God of dead men, but of the living." In heaven and earth, we are alive because of Christ, and in that life we are God's. Spiritual death and sin separate us from God, but God reaches out to us and brings us back into the fold through Christ's death and resurrection. 

Our death is not permanent. We rise again with faith in the Lord, and we meet God -- Father, Son, and Spirit -- with praise. Hallelujah to the Lord of earth and heaven, hallelujah to our King, hallelujah to the Way, the Truth, the Life, and hallelujah to the Resurrection!