How E.T. Challenges My Response to Christ’s Resurrection

Do you remember the movie “E.T.”? A clip from that movie landed in my inbox a couple of days ago, just in time for Easter. As strange as it may seem, I found it challenged my response, as a Jesus follower, to the reality of Christ’s resurrection.

Why?

Because sometimes it’s way too easy, as believers, to grow complacent about spiritual truths—even the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

The little boy’s excitement about E.T.’s revival puts my enthusiasm about my Savior’s resurrection to shame.

Bible references show a different response

I flipped to several Bible references to examine how various individuals responded when they discovered that Christ was alive.

Here’s what I found:

Luke 23:9: When the women who went to Jesus’ tomb early Sunday morning discovered He’d risen, they immediately rushed to tell His eleven disciples and others the good news.

No ho-hum attitude there! I would have loved to have been a bug on the wall in that room, listening to the excitement in their voices.

Luke 23:12: When Peter heard the women’s story, he “jumped up and ran to the tomb to look.”

Sounds like enthusiasm to me!

Luke 24:31-35: When two men who’d walked the road to Emmaus discovered that their travel companion was Jesus, they high-tailed it back to Jerusalem to tell the eleven disciples and others who had gathered with them.

They wasted no time telling the good news.

Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples and others. Their response?

Luke 24:36-41: “They stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder.”

It’s different today

Would you agree that the story of Christ’s resurrection doesn’t seem to carry the same punch today as it did 2,000 years ago? Sure, we acknowledge it on Easter Sunday morning, but does it fill us with wonder?

Do we enthusiastically convey the news to our coworkers and neighbors and family members who don’t yet know Christ? Or do we keep the news to ourselves because we’re embarrassed or afraid of being regarded as religious fanatics or politically incorrect?

Sadly, passed down from generation to generation, news of Christ’s resurrection appears to have lost its pizzazz.

The great news is that it hasn’t lost its power. It still changes lives today. It still brings hope. And it still conquers death.

That reality ought to trigger something in us—in the very least, an acknowledgement that Christ is conqueror over fear and death, and so are we. Let’s allow the truth of Christ’s resurrection to fill us with courage and hope. No matter what we face, we are more than overcomers because He lives in us!