Author: Deji Okegbile

Jesus called Lazarus and he came out of the grave and almost a week later, Mary, though not in the darkness of the grave, she was in darkness of familiarity, mourning, and loss, when her life goes on in different direction. The miracle of resurrection started when Jesus called Mary by her name and she knew who he was, not based on the past familiarity but now as the living Lord. Two related factors delayed her recognition of Christ. One was her unexpectancy, and the other was her preoccupation. Mary was preoccupied with her past experience, her beautiful memories of Jesus – the man, for whom she grieve and painful memories for whom she bleed. She wanted to find Jesus’ body in Joseph’s garden, in the tomb where it had been placed, she did not expect him to be walking around outside the tomb. Mary was totally disappointed, Jesus’ appearance to her was totally unexpected, and at first she did not recognize him hence, she calls Jesus, Rabbouni, his Friday name, on Resurrection day. The reflection is that Jesus is not limited by and to human calculations and denominational boxes and tomb of traditions/ideologies, but in personal encounter with the Risen Lord. Many are reluctant to recognise and accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour because his story did not fit in to their human interpretation and expectation. Resurrection...

The three experiences of Jesus, his temptation in the desert,  his Transfiguration on Mount Tabor and Resurrection are three stages – the problem, the application, and conclusion of a thesis, the thesis of the life of Jesus Christ. The three stages of Jesus’ life provides a model of our life. What could the experience of temptation say about you and me? What could the Jesus’ Transfiguration and Resurrection say about you and me? The reflection here for you and me is that we carry a God given glory within us, confirming us as His sons and daughters. We are baptised in Christ Jesus, a co-heir with Christ. As members of Christ’s body, Lent calls us to see the meaning of temptation, and of the Transfiguration of Jesus as a message about the inner light of God we all carry within us. Lent as a renewed discipline while walking through our wilderness calls us to renounce our sin in order to walk in daily obedience to Christ. The problem is centred on our human curiosity that like to see the change in order to believe. The good news is that, though we carry within us Temptation, by the grace of God, we carry with us Transfiguration as a means of our transformation. As foreshadowed in the Transfiguration, Resurrection reveals the fullness of Christ’s glory, especially when we give ourselves anew...