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Easter’s message of regeneration
Regeneration is at the heart of the two-thousand-year-old Easter story. Jesus of Nazareth was brought to trial at the urging of religious authorities who felt threatened by his teachings about God’s love for all, and by his unprecedented healing ministry. He was sentenced by the Roman governor, Pilate, and crucified. The narrative moves as Jesus predicted: he arose from the dead after three days to prove that Love and Life are divine, and can’t be destroyed by hate.
I grew up with Jesus’ story, but as a young adult I needed to search to find its meaning. Belief wasn’t enough. I found direction in the practice of Christian Science, which simultaneously saved my life in an emergency. I was completely paralyzed and rapidly losing my normal functions, including sight. My husband began reading to me from the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and I heard a clear thought that confirmed the truth I had been looking for. The condition, which was later identified medically as one that can be fatal, immediately left. But, of even more consequence to me, the beginnings of regeneration that I experienced compelled me to explore how this had happened.
I found some answers in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15). It tells the story of a younger son who, after wrecking his life with bad choices, returns hungry and homeless to his father. His father greets him with love, saying, “My son was dead, and is alive again.” The prodigal hadn’t died and come back to life, but he had let go of old ways of thinking and living, and was unexpectedly welcomed into the good that was always waiting for him. Sacrificing his old ways led to his regeneration—to a type of resurrection.
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