When I had come to the church for the first time, I was a young man. It was the following year that I would first attend and commemorate the Day of the Resurrection. At that time, members of the church would come to boil and decorate several hundred chicken eggs and give them to all the children who attend Sunday School. I myself would eat an egg on the occasion. The children would each eat an egg once they had understood the symbolism and act of remembrance behind the egg. They would eat an egg as soon as they were given one. They would even put them in their pockets and take them home. But from time to time, I would see some children take eggs home without receiving any explanation about them.

Therefore: just what is the relationship between the nicely decorated egg and the Day of the Resurrection? A decorated egg is merely a dead egg. What kind of meaning does a decorated egg have? Sure! One can boil an egg out of courtesy, because eggs easily break if they are not properly boiled! But Jesus spoke the words, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings”. These words spoken by Jesus were spoken out of concern for those who would not understand these words and be saved.

The egg of a chicken will dwell under the breast of the mother for 21 days and then hatch. The chick would then come out of the shell. No one outside of the shell breaks it on the chick’s behalf. But each chick deliberately opens up its wings and comes out of the shell. The chick should come out as healthy and strong chicks. But if the chick comes out abruptly without properly forming its limbs and body, the chick will die after a mere few days. On the other hand, the chick that forms a healthy body will grow up to be a healthy. It seems that the decorated egg used to celebrate the Day of the Resurrection has symbolic meaning. It has to do with the chick finally coming out of the egg and dwelling under the mother’s wings for incubation. This is how the egg is used to symbolize the Resurrection.

Here, then, is the meaning of the Resurrection. The chick is incubated and warmed when still inside the shell, but it then finally comes out of the shell to become a chick. The form of the chick inside the shell is completely different from when it has out of it. Likewise, on the Day of the Resurrection, ‘the corruptible will clothe itself with the uncorruptible’, and the flesh body will clothe itself with the spiritual body. And the being of man that had barely survived each day will receive the ‘life’ and ‘eternal life’ that comes from the blood and flesh of Jesus Christ, respectively.

In the past, we had received hindrances in both time and in space due to our flesh. But our flesh will suddenly all be changed. Like a small mist that can seep inside the room without any trouble – regardless of whether there is a solid brick wall or a firmly locked door in its way – so we will also be free from all material hindrances. All of a sudden, we will pass roughly 2.5 million years. The Lord will come to us from heaven, and we will go to meet Him. We will finally meet Him in the air. When we meet Him there, we will become One with Him. He will go to judge the world, and we will be with Him.

The Lord Jesus will come as ‘the King of Kings’ and ‘the Lord of Judgement’. He will judge both the living and the dead. He will place the devil and all his subordinates into the lake of fire. Then, the saints will judge the angels who were supposed to help them but had become corrupt to become deceiving spirits. It may seem shameful to judge one’s own angels, but this is the great authority given those who will inherit the Resurrection. Those who participate in the Resurrection are they who will become the heirs of God along with Jesus Christ. As they are those who call God, ‘Abba Father’, they will be guided by the Holy Spirit. They must follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit – wherever He leads us. So I ask you today: are you readying yourselves and doing service for the sake of the Glorious Resurrection? I ask you: are you truly readying yourselves?

Semuon