This post is not meant for grandchildren of every age. How you use it will vary by their age and your story telling ability!
Paul asks in Romans 6:3,5, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?…If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Baptism is a rite, a sacrament, a mystery and/or a sign depending on your theology. Although it is something we do in the physical world, its meaning is primarily spiritual. The physical act of baptism is simple. It is sprinkling a person with water or, in its full form, immersing a person three times, and saying “I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
What does it mean to be baptized into Christ’s death? Baptism is the way we are immersed into Christ. We enter into his whole reality, including his death. But the key point of his death isn’t that he died—we are able to do that without him. Baptism into his death is immersion into his fate. Entering into Christ’s death means we also enter into his life, into his resurrection, and into his power to rise from the dead.
When Jesus rose from the dead, it was described in Greek with the word anastasis, which means “to stand up again.” In Latin, that was translated as resurgere. “Re-” means “again” and surgere means “to rise up,” thus “to rise up again.” But surgere also means to surge up.
Jesus didn’t just float up like a mist from a calm sea. He didn’t revive with a sudden intake of air. He rose resurgent! His was a victory over death for everyone. The dead never stand up again. They are powerless. To overcome the power of death, you need more than an AAA battery.
You can rebuke the devil, ignore the world and crucify your flesh. That means you have a fighting chance against your second, third and fourth greatest foes. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to defeat your number one foe: death. Fortunately, you have a victor over death who has already fought and won your battle with death.
The good news is that if you die like him, you will rise like him. You too will rise resurgent!
In Baptism we are immersed in Christ, his fate will be ours: SURGING UP from the dead in victory.
Now, with a little “tweaking” depending on their age, go share this exciting account of Jesus’s resurrection with your grandchildren!
Mike Shaughnessy is the founder of Grandly and the author of The Strategic Grandparent and Eternity Bound.