“In Jesus Christ, the medium and the message are one and the same.” – Marshall McLuhan
Blood and Water – Resurrection Series – Part 5
PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
The incarnation was our first glimmer of something altogether new and miraculous and hopeful. Christ born of blood and water and pain, just like the rest of us.
When a woman gives birth, blood and water flow from her body. The moment that baby takes its first breath is like the awakening of all creation; a doorway to something miraculous and divine.
It started with birth: Christ among us, one of us, with us – is our great hope.
Jesus was 100% human. He suffered as we do, he suffered with us. He experienced life – all of it – alongside us.
And then he died. Just as we will. Just as we already do.
We are always dying in order to live. Death. Burial. Resurrection. The circle of life taking place within our own, every day in a million different ways. From our cells to our breath to the seasons to our passions, death is a part of life. For us to eat, something has to be cut from the life source and prepared. If we don’t eat, we don’t live. Death in its own way births life; makes room for it. Jesus embodied death in every way on the cross. John tells us that blood and water flowed from his body; he was covered in the same spiritual dust that ushered in his life. But death is a different kind of birth.
Just days earlier, Jesus had said:
“Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.” John 12:25.
In our despair and frailty, death seems to be the end. We fear it like we fear public speaking: terrifying and best left alone. We rarely talk about it, leaving it up to poetry and movies to express and address it. Death seems to have the final say.
But there’s where resurrection makes the difference. Jesus embodied humanity, divinity, pain, joy and eventually death.
Then, he embodied resurrection. And we share in it, too. Paul said:
“My old identity has been crucified with Messiah and no longer lives; for the nails of his cross crucified me with him. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one!” (Gal 2:20)
This is why communion is so sacred. As we partake of it, it’s not an act of remembrance; we are actively participating in his life, death, and resurrection. We are embodying the Christ. All the feasts in early Christianity and ancient Judaism were not events to remember something that happened; they were a way of stitching time together, participating in the spiritual event here and now. When we take communion, eat the bread and drink the wine, they mix into our bodies and become one with us.
The resurrection isn’t something that happened apart from us all those years ago; it's happening right now within us. We embody the life of Christ in our lives. I’m not saying that we don’t have to worry about our physical death, because hey, resurrection! But maybe there is something to that. Christ didn’t wipe away all the suffering and terror and pain of the world when he rose again. Through death, he scooped it up into himself, and through resurrection, he transformed it. It’s all included. He rose with scars, and those scars are glorious.
The question is, how do we embody resurrection for a world that’s scared to death?
Go to Part 6 – Down Off the Cross »
Written by Lizzy Milani
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