What would you think is Jesus’ favorite word? Most might say love and you know that’s fair enough since Jesus talked about love. “Love one another as I have loved you” that was essentially Jesus’ parting sermon to the disciples.
Now some might say fear. How many times does Jesus say “do not be afraid.” He gets to turn fear into courage so perhaps more than any other phrase in all of scripture Jesus says, “do not be afraid.”
Or, you might go in a different direction and you might say forgiveness. That word may very well define Jesus’s mission on earth. He suffered and died for the forgiveness of sins, my sins, your sins, everyone’s sins. Everybody needs to forgive somebody.
I think Jesus has another favorite word. I think Jesus’s favorite word is “rise.” Rise is the word Jesus uses every time he describes how he is going to establish his kingdom and unlock the Gates of Heaven. He’s going to suffer, he’s going to die, but this is the most important claim in all of human history. He said he was going to rise, he would literally rise from the dead so that he could do the same for you and me. He would do this at the moment of our death. Instead of us being alone, we’re going to hear a simple word of life, whispered into the depths of our souls, “rise.”
Rise to life again.
The story of the Transfiguration suggests that rising is not just a word applied to life after death. It actually applies to the here and now so we learn the disciples are faced down in the dirt, gripped with fear because they hear the voice of God the Father. They hear him say this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him and they’re unable to comprehend what’s happening.
They’re unable to comprehend that Moses and Elijah are there with them and they actually heard the voice of God and they’re down on the ground, prostrate facing the dirt trembling with fear unable to figure out what to do and what does Jesus do?
He comes over to them, he comforts them with a touch and he says “rise.”
To rise is to go from who we are to who we could be. Whether we are gripped by fear or lost in the darkness of an addiction, a physical sickness, being discouraged, feeling broken. Whatever it is to go from that to a future of goodness, beyond comprehension, a future of peace and vitality and life and flourishing.
I mean there’s no story more attractive to the human spirit than the story of someone rising. Being the underdog. Our greatest glorious moment as human beings is not failing but in the rising up every time we fail.
Now think about this, God doesn’t prevent us from failing or falling. He doesn’t prevent us from doing that, He lets it happen. He does so for many reasons most of which are too mysterious for us to ever know but one of the reasons we do know is this. Nothing transforms the soul into something beautiful quite like rising quite like getting up when everyone thought you were destined to stay on the ground forever.
God
parents us in this way. He lets us fall even if we have to fall over and over
and over again because we need to rise. We need to rise for a particular reason
so if there are things weighing you down in life, if there are things that may
make you doubt the hope that you carry within you. If you’re weighed down by the sense of your own
inadequacy, you’re weighed down by the past opportunities you’ve missed in life,
the burdens and
cruelties of life. If you are weighed down by the faces of those who have
wronged you and set you back permanently in life. If you’re on the ground
because your dreams are lying dormant somewhere in a forgotten corner of your
heart. If Iife every day feels like an overwhelming blur of a burden, if there’s
something you need to but don’t want to do because it’s hard or painful or you
don’t think you can do it. If you’re growing restless or if you’re stuck at a
rut in your life, if you’re just limping through your days just trying to get
by, if life has placed an unfathomably large burden upon your shoulders and you
have no idea how you’re suppose to carry it or if the reality of who you are in
relation to who you thought you could be has shattered your world. If you move through
your day dazed, disoriented or uncertain of what to do next. Hear this word, rise.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that they hear the word of Jesus, hear the word that breathes life and strength into our souls. Hear the word of Jesus saying to you, “rise.” Rise. Believing who you could be is not a forgotten dream but a god-given destiny.
