What is it about the Resurrection?

What is it about the resurrection?!  I've seen blog posts this week about how the resurrection changes everything.  Adrian Warnock has a new book subtitled "How the Resurrection Changes Everything" (which I have in my stack to read though I'm significantly behind).  And it is my conviction -- the resurrection of Christ did indeed change EVERYTHING.  But how?

I have been disappointed enough by life to come to expect it.  Not much suprises me anymore.  I won't get into the theological details of the already but not yet nature of the kingdom of God.  The clearest Scripture on the subject is in Hebrews, which explains it simply but effectively.   

Hebrews 2:7-8 (NIV)
7 You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor 8 and put everything under his feet.  In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.

That's the bottom line, right? In theory, Jesus is King.  God is sovereign.  Satan is defeated.  But I have people I really love who deny the gospel.  Family and friends die of cancer.  My brother in law left my God honoring sister for another woman.  Another friend's father took his own life.  I have diabetes.  Another friend with young children has cancer.  Christian friends fight.  Church leaders fail.  It's the big YET of Scripture.  "Yet, at present we do not see everything subject to him." 

How does the resurrection change everything?  Why does meditating on it year after year change everything?  Why does Paul tell us in Ephesians 1 that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is the one at work in us?  Why does that even matter? 

I think of that scraggly band of believers still hovering around the foot of the cross that horrible night and then visiting Jesus' tomb afterward to prepare His body.  Of anyone in the world whose hopes had been dashed, they were them.  They had left father and mother and culture and religious upbringing  to follow Him.  And He died!  He hangs lifeless on the tree.  I can't imagine that moment for them.  And that's how it stays ... for days. 

Can you imagine how the resurrection changed everything for them?  I think of Peter's transformation from one who denied Christ to one who is martyred for his faith.  Everything they had staked their life on had been completely crushed.  And then Christ walks in, shows them His wounds, convinces them He is real, and returns to heaven on His own terms.  EVERYTHING is under His feet. 

The resurrection is the fuel of our faith.  It is the thing that allows us to believe in the hope that will not disappoint. 

Romans 10:11 (NASB)  For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."

For every loved one who struggles with cancer, family member sinned against by their spouse, friend betrayed by another, job lost, miscarriage endured, engagement broken -- for every disappointment we face, for every circumstance that does not reflect God's good instructions for His children or His glory on earth, the resurrection is the assurance that EVERYTHING is under His feet, and we who believe in Him will NOT be disappointed when we sit with Him face to face.  He has done exactly what He said He would do.  Praise God, dear sister, for the resurrection does indeed change everything.