Resurrection?
Author: Andrew Comiskey
April 19, 2021
Unbelief. That’s what
struck me most about a dear friend’s resistance to my claim that Jesus actually
can and does restore LGBTQ+-identified persons to wholeness.
My friend is smart and
surrounded by talky Christians who jaw about their right to be ‘gay’ or to have
‘mixed orientation marriages’ or other undigestible mouthfuls. All profess
orthodoxy. None are aware of how worldly they have become. Their little
kingdoms reduce Kingdom authority. Big rainbow, little Jesus.
Maybe in the heat and
struggle vulnerable persons slowly withdraw trust in Him for trust in their
sexual experience. I get that. It can be tough to surrender and stay
surrendered. Waiting is hard. Even then we can fail to see Him, bright as dawn
yet still elusive to dim eyes and dull ears.
I draw strange consolation
from the disciples’ response to the Resurrected Jesus. At times clueless (Jn
21:4; Lk 24:25), too frightened to speak (Mk 16:4), or simply unbelieving and
full of doubt (Lk 24: 38; Mk 16:13; Matt. 28:17), the disciples struggled to
apprehend the Resurrected Jesus.
It reminds me of my
friends who cannot quite trust that Jesus can break the domination of
disordered desire and reorder our passions. Risen, having stormed the caverns
of sin and death, Jesus still cannot raise us from our LGBTQ+ graves.
He can. Yes, we must agree
with our entombment and count as dead old identity constructs. He gives us
power to entrust ourselves wholly to Him, over and over. And in His merciful
love--bright, relentless, tender, and attuned to our deepest needs—He gives us
mercy for naysayers. Rather than toughen in reaction to unbelief, we counter it
with hearts softened and freshly washed. The forgiven sing a better song,
declare a truer word than cynics not yet graced with divine encounter. The
Resurrected Jesus raises us over and over. One greater lives in us.
We now live to confirm the
true person next to us, summoning the new life welling up in him or her. We who
are raised now live to raise others.
Generous love demands we eschew
unbelief. Entanglement with the traditions of men strangles new life. Freedom
is remarkably simple for those who believe. Resurrection? Our lives depend on
it.
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