Resurrection

Resurrection    

            What wonderful pictures words sometimes carry in their histories; yet often we do not know the stories and therefore cannot see the pictures.  Take the word resurrection.  At the root of the word is the Latin word surgere meaning “lead up from below.”  It actually came from two Latin roots, sub meaning “below” and regere meaning “lead.”  The common English word that we have from that root is, of course, the word surge.

            Think of the word surge for a moment.  A surge is a sudden burst.  A great wave surges against the rock.  We feel a surge of emotion as we see a loved one we have been separated from for a time.  We speak of power surges, occurrences when a sudden burst of electricity comes with such power that it blows out the lights or the computer.  That surging, that bursting forth that cannot be contained, that’s the picture that is the heart of the word resurrection.  The second syllable of resurrection is the word surge.

            One of my favorite hymns as a boy was the Easter song “Low in the Grave He Lay.”  The chorus especially excited me when we sang it: “Up from the grave he arose, With a mighty triumph o’er his foes.”  The combination of words and music, catch the drama of the moment: He surged forth.  He did not creep out of the grave, did not peak around timidly and then shyly edge his way between the stone and the crypt.  As the second stanza of the song says, “He tore the bars away.”  In my mind’s eye I see him rip that stone out of the way, and there he stands, wild-eyed, wrappings blowing in the breeze. Death’s conqueror surges forth.

            What a picture, and part of it is in the word resurrection!

            Now, what about the re in resurrection?  Doesn’t that suggest a re-surge, a second surge, a second leading up from below.  No, here’s the way I would explain that: Christ had been up and on the earth walking about; then he was killed and buried, was put down; then he revived, reappeared, resurged, resurrected.

            Seventeenth century poet George Herbert in his poem “The Dawning” captures something of this sudden surge of Christ’s resurrection with his repeated “Awake, awake” and “Arise, arise” but focuses especially on the resurrection that all believers experience.

The Dawning

Awake sad heart, whom sorrow ever drowns

Take up thine eyes, which feed on earth;

Unfold thy forehead gathered into frowns;

Thy savior comes, and with Him mirth.

                        Awake, awake;

And with a thankful heart His comforts take.

But thou does still lament and pine and cry;

And feel His death, but not His victory.

Arise sad heart; if thou do not withstand,

Christ’s resurrection thine may be;

Do not by hanging down break from the hand,

Which as it riseth raiseth thee.

                        Arise, arise;

And with His burial-linen dry thine eyes:

Christ left His grave-clothes, that we might, when grief

Draws tears or blood, not want a handkerchief.