A crocus and a resurrection

C.S. Lewis said that we believers should say, "Jesus Christ was raised from the dead" in the same matter-of-fact way that we say "I saw a crocus yesterday." One year it will be the last November. Jesus is coming back again, and he said "soon."

On that day everyone will see what was true all along-that the supernatural world is as close to you as the person who is right now sitting on the other side of your door. There is perfect continuity between the seen and unseen worlds. This is evidenced over and over again throughout the Bible, as "causes" in the spiritual world have "effects" in the material world, and vice versa.

The most obvious examples of actions in the unseen world having ramifications in our workaday existence are the creation of the world in the first place (Genesis 1:1) and the great love of God that broke into a sinful world to save it (John 3:16). I don't suppose we have to argue that proposition much; every page of the Bible shows the intrusion of the supernatural into the natural.

The reverse operation-the natural world having an "impact" on the supernatural world-is, of course, demonstrated in the fact that we have been given the amazing ability to speak words while driving our cars that change the world. Paul tells the Corinthian believers that their prayers are responsible for delivering him from terrible scrapes (2 Corinthians 1:11). John tells us in Revelation that our prayers, soaring up to heaven over the course of the millennia, are what will finally unleash the final shaking that will dismantle the evil world system and usher in the new. Thirdly, Jesus tells us that we have the ability-and responsibility-to bind on earth what has been bound in heaven (Matthew 18:18).

I say all this to remind us of the closeness-the fingertip reach-of the reality that we affirm. God is near. As near as the crocus, and as real in our familiar dimension.

The problem is that we have a tendency to speak of the supernatural in a weird way, especially when in the company of unbelievers. I think the explanation is nothing more esoteric than embarrassment. Jesus said that if we are ashamed of Him before people, He will be ashamed of us before His Father (Luke 9:26). This is a very sobering statement; He does not soften it at all.

Yet how many times have we toned down our profession before folks we esteemed, especially the intellectual crowd. (Even the intellectual crowd in a seminary café!) We say "God" rather than "Jesus" because it is slightly more acceptable in society. We do not deny the faith outright but it is somehow not as sharp and clear as it ought to be. We tell our seatmate on the airplane that we are a "minister" instead of saying that we are devoting our lives to making Christ known.

My desire is to stop denying Christ in subtle ways, and to be able to say to anyone I converse with-the intellectual or scullery maid-that "Jesus Christ was raised from the dead."

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