The Resurrection, the Rooster and Resiliency
I’ve been thinking a lot about “resilience” lately. There are a lot of ways to define it and it’s a popular topic in organizations today as we all try to navigate the constantly changing world, shifting priorities, heavy workloads and the exhausting march of progress that leaves us feeling overwhelmed, overworked, and disappointed. A quick internet search will uncover articles, books, apps and even entire industries that promise to help you develop resiliency, but these approaches seem superficial and lacking something. Interestingly, the fire at Notre Dame this week provided a very timely explanation of resilience worth thinking about.
A worker discovered this metal rooster among the ashes and the rubble in Paris on Tuesday. It had been perched at the top Notre Dame’s iconic spire. Have you ever wondered why roosters are found on top of weather vanes, church steeples, and cathedral towers around the world? Me too! They are an important symbol in cultures around the world, including the Christian church. Roosters are bold, brave, and defiant in the face of adversity. Despite years of weathering storms, difficulties, obstacles, and setbacks, including an all consuming fire and treacherous fall, this rooster at the top of Notre Dame’s spire somehow emerged only slightly dented and damaged. Resilience is commonly defined as “bouncing back”, and it’d be easy to suggest that this is what happened to this rooster, but it’s much more than that.
To better understand resiliency, it’s helpful to understand the concept of the resurrection. To be resurrected is to go through a transformation and to be made new. In the case of this rooster, it will be restored, revived and given new life. It reminds us that even during our darkest days, that there is hope and that the sun will rise again.
The idea of the resurrection is foundational in Christianity and is particularly important as we celebrate Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter. One of the greatest stories of resilience in the Bible relates to the response of Jesus’ disciples after he was raised from the dead. After Jesus was crucified and buried, his followers were trying to come to terms with the fact that the man they had followed for over three years, the man who they they left everything for, who they believed to be the Son of God, was not coming back. They were completely demoralized and discouraged. They were confused and disillusioned. Jesus’ execution by way of crucifixion was an especially humiliating and agonizing way to die and, for good reason, the disciples were so overcome with fear that they fled to save their own lives.
We’ve all been there. Think about the last time you suffered a major set back. Maybe it was because you lost someone close to you, or maybe it was because you experienced stress, difficulty, grief, pain, failure, disappointment, frustration, anger, or uncertainty. In a situation like that, you might agree that it’s hard to just pick up the pieces and move on. Your first response might be to run, to hide, and to give up.
Yet, if we read on into the book of Acts, we learn that within just weeks, these same men were suddenly seen in public boldly telling everyone about Jesus. Something clearly changed. For the rest of their lives, despite ongoing and severe persecution, every one of them lived with a new passion and fearlessness. Astonishingly, the disciples had been transformed into an irrepressible, emboldened group of men and women willing to endure any trial or persecution to tell their story about Jesus. That’s an incredible transformation. Why the change?
It is very difficult to account for the dramatic change that we see in the lives of the disciples of Jesus, back then as well as today. How is it that fearful fleers can be transformed into faithful followers despite trials, setbacks, obstacles, and maybe even persecution? Something unquestionably happened to these men. The disciples were direct and honest. They explained they had seen the resurrected Jesus and this changed everything. Had Jesus not risen from the dead and appeared to His disciples, He would have been remembered only as a martyr and a prophet who met an unfortunate end, but nothing more. The resurrection made all the difference and gave the disciples a new way of thinking, feeling and living.
Life can be joyful and wonderful, but it can also be challenging. If you’re like most people, you’ve struggled with doubt, fear and despair at one time or another. How can we handle those times? It’s helpful to remind ourselves that resilience is not simply recovering from a loss, obstacle or difficultly, but about how we eventually transcend that loss and move onto something completely new. This doesn’t mean that we will not get tired, or frustrated or fail. What it does mean is that when we suffer, when we are lonely, when we are ill, or when we are weak, we can appeal to Jesus who was literally raised from the dead and who defeated death.
As Christians, we believe that when Jesus was resurrected, the “old things have passed away and that that all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The idea of the resurrection, and of resiliency, is not about bouncing back from unfavorable circumstances, surviving tragic events, or getting our old life back, but about being transformed. Easter is the time that we come together to celebrate Jesus’ resurrected life and his resurrection of our lives.
It’s fitting that Notre Dame rooster was symbolically resurrected from this historic fire during Holy Week. Notre Dame will be rebuilt, the rooster will prevail, and mostly importantly, Jesus will return. The next time you see a rooster on top of a steeple, or hear the early morning crow of a rooster ushering in a new day, be reminded that God is in charge and to rely on Jesus for your resilience.
