“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!
- from Luke 24:5-6

This is the great, good news of Easter: Jesus Christ is not among the dead. He’s alive!

This miracles changes everything. If Jesus can come back from the dead, what is impossible for him?

Ever since the fall of humanity at the dawn of time we’ve been longing to be made new. That new house doesn’t feel new after a few hard rains lead to mud tracked across the kitchen floor. That new job doesn’t feel new after a few performance appraisals. That new relationship (with all the possibilities it entails) stopped feeling new a few fights ago. The shine of new fades quickly.

But God has planted something inside each and every one of our hearts. We believe against experience and hope against hope that someday we’ll discover a new that sticks. We want a new that never grows old, tired or stale … a new that never wears out.

And then we see Jesus. Raised from the dead, he has a life that will never end. He carries the new with him and offers it to us: new life, new relationships, new possibilities.

We’ve faced disappointment after disappointment in our lives. We’ve learned to look for the dead among the dead. But that’s not where Jesus is. He’s among the living and invites us to join him. He invites us to look for him in the land of the living, to find him in our daily lives and our common experiences.

Take a look over your shoulder. Where over the years have you gone in search of “the new”? How has Jesus made you new?