Christians all over the world commemorate the resurrection of Jesus at Easter time. To many, this season is about far more than a distant event in history. In particular, to students of Christian Science, the glorious triumph of the master Christian and Way-shower points to a glorious present possibility. His victory over death can show anyone how to experience daily resurrection, rising above entombing beliefs that would reinforce the worldly conviction of mortality to an understanding of the freedom that comes from orienting thought toward immortal Life and Truth—God. 

Even before the events that are celebrated at Easter, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. . . . Whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11: 25, 26, New International Version). The Master was not talking about believing in him as a human personality but embracing what his life and healings illustrated—the Christ-idea, which he embodied and which lifts humanity above the mundane and the mortal into the consciousness of immortal being.

The Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, explains this in her book Unity of Good: “Rising above the false, to the true evidence of Life, is the resurrection that takes hold of eternal Truth” (pp. 60-61). Each of us can prove the practical significance of the resurrection in our lives by rising above false and limiting beliefs to the healing truth that Jesus evidenced. Christian Science explains this truth that life is not, nor ever has been, entombed in matter.

To grasp the Christ-idea and experience resurrection practically calls for more than an admission that the Messiah came centuries ago. It starts with understanding Christ as the true, spiritual idea of God and the Christly nature of man implied by that idea. To follow the Master’s teaching is to refuse to accept that the belief of mortality can entrap us, because Jesus overcame mortality. Christian Science reveals that our sole existence is in and of God, divine Life, showing the possibility of experiencing spiritual resurrection today. 

Each of us can prove the practical significance of the resurrection in our lives by rising above false and limiting beliefs to the healing truth that Jesus evidenced.

The world desperately needs a practical sense of the resurrection that lifts humanity out of the collective belief of life submerged in materiality, ignorant of the power and peace of God. Christian Science breaks through any hypnotic attraction to matter-based living as a source of satisfaction—an attraction that makes a false god of human ways and means for solutions that ultimately prove elusive. 

Life in and of Spirit, God, proved by Jesus, is the substance of our true identity, and that which is limited, fearful, and mortal is not. The false sense of identity disappears as we better understand and express qualities rooted in the divine nature. This is daily resurrection: letting tenderness and compassion dissolve anger, resolving an impasse with the power of forgiveness, letting love expand to wash away fear and hate, and overcoming illness and disease by recognizing health and wholeness as normal and permanent. 

Jesus experienced the resurrection alone with God. He wasn’t dependent on circumstances changing in either the political or personal realms. In the garden of Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion, he knew that even without earthly support, he was still going to go forward and prove for all humanity that the divine will is always good and that divine Love is the resurrecting power—is God’s law. 

Nothing can prevent us from individually experiencing this resurrecting power in our daily life, whatever conditions we face. We can claim our independence from materialism and mortality because we are God’s reflection, one with divine Spirit. This direct relation to God enables us to experience spiritual life and its blessings here and now. It lifts us from feeling buried by supposed material laws that have power over us to recognizing the supremacy of God’s law. Each time we recognize this, we’re proving that matter cannot entomb us or anyone. And thought is resurrected to a fresh view of reality.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Eddy explains, “The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind” (p. 162). This change of base is an overhaul of what we trust as the ultimate and only life-giver. That’s a practical lesson of resurrection—that thought changes, becoming more fully aware of God as divine Life and lifting us out of any thoughts of death. The Christ is present today, right in the midst of everyday life, showing us that God’s love for us is the spiritual reality and that we can never be separated from this love. This opens our hearts and minds to God’s power; changes our perspective on reality and, consequently, what we experience; and is practical resurrection.

Larissa Snorek, Associate Editor