Know Your Worth and Purpose in the Risen Christ

Երբ երեխայ էի, չէի կրնար հասկնալ, որովհետեւ դեռ չէի գիտեր՝ «նոր» ի՞նչ կը նշանակէ։

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

We have all come here today to celebrate Christ’s glorious resurrection once again. As I mentioned in my Armenian sermon today, we greet one another with this saying: Christ is revealed among us. Christ is risen from the dead. Blessed is the resurrection of Christ.

Of course, this is a beautiful moment for us to proclaim loudly and proudly that Christ is risen, because if we are not willing to say at least this much about what we believe, then we do not have the right to call ourselves Christians.

But before we talk more about the resurrection, let us talk a little about ourselves, if we could. What does the Church know about us? What does the Church know about who you are? What does the Church know about who I am?

The truth is that the full answer to that question is something each and every one of us has to work out with God. However, through the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Church gives us a strong framework for answering the question of who I am and who you are.

It begins with a simple idea upon which we can all agree: people simply are not perfect. You and I are not perfect—maybe especially me; I do not know—and neither is the world in which we live. This is the root of all the sin, injustice, inequity, hatred, and evil we encounter in this world. We are all missing the mark. We are all falling short.

But Jesus came to make it perfect: each and every one of us, creation, humanity as a whole—the whole thing. He came to make it perfect. In order to do that, he had to be sacrificed. By his resurrection, death would no longer have power; instead, life would have power.

But you may say, “That happened a long time ago, and the world does not seem like a much better place today. In fact, I am a Christian, like you. I am baptized, and I am, as I said, not perfect either. Why can I not see this power that you are talking about, Der Hayr?”

The truth is that the world has been changed, and so have you, and so have I. The problem is that most of us simply do not realize it, or we do not realize it often enough.

The Gospel of John says, “Know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” The Pharisees said to Jesus, “Who are you?” When we are asked the same question—“Who am I?”—we must know the truth. If we know the truth, we will be set free by it.

Knowing ourselves is about knowing our worth and our purpose. “What are we worth?” is a very important question for us to ask. When we do not know what we are worth, we are prepared to sell ourselves to the lowest bidder. We are willing to compromise our lives for things such as comfort, self-satisfaction, and validation.

Joseph, from the Bible, is an excellent example of someone who knew himself. In Genesis, we read how he was tempted to commit adultery. When he was tested, he said, “Who am I to do such a thing?” In other words: I know who I am, and I am not a person who is going to commit that sort of sin, because I know the value of my life. He knew he was different, so he lived differently.

Judas is the opposite example. He sold his life—and Jesus’ life—for a little bit of silver because, even though he had heard the truth, he did not know it. He did not embrace it. He did not know his own value, let alone Jesus’ value, so he sold it at a cheap price.

What are you worth?

Today, we hear a lot about cryptocurrency—things like Bitcoin. I am sure there are many people in this room who know a lot more about it than I do. I do not know very much, and you have not come to church on Easter Sunday to hear investment advice from Der Mesrop. I am qualified to give tech support, but definitely not investment advice.

As far as I understand it—and feel free to correct me if I am wrong—cryptocurrency is basically math. It is math being done all the time on computers. Numbers are calculated and stored in a distributed database that no one will ever even look at. They are simply on a collection of hard drives around the world. Collectively, however, we have decided that this is worth a certain amount of money because we believe somebody else would pay that much for it. And so it is worth that.

What is someone willing to pay for you? Saint Paul says that we have been bought and paid for. What exactly have we been bought with? The life of God’s only-begotten Son.

In economic terms, the value of your life and my life is literally equal to that of Christ—not in terms of preciousness, mind you, but in terms of what God is willing to pay for it. What makes your life worth so much? The fact that God was willing to pay the ultimate price for it. But we must know the truth about our value, and we must know ourselves, in order to appreciate this.

What is our purpose?

Christ lived a very confident life. In fact, it is only in exceptional moments that we catch a glimpse that he might, even for a second, be considering a question about what is to happen next. According to the Gospels, he was certain of every decision he made.

For Christ, purpose meant destination. He knew exactly where he needed to end up, even when no one else did. He was sure of every decision that brought him closer to his desired destination. That destination was Golgotha: crucifixion on the cross. People, for his own sake, would try to stop him, but he would not hear it. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when the disciples tried to stop the Roman soldiers from arresting him, he said, “Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering that my Father has given me?”

To live a life of purpose and confidence, we must have the same assurance in knowing what the destination of our own lives should be. We are all walking different paths, but we share one God-given destination: to stand before God, ready to give an accounting for the choices we have made with the life he has given us—God willing, having not wasted the divine value of our lives.

This year at Saint John, we are focusing on healing. We have already explored topics such as spiritual healing, emotional healing, and healing through repentance, and each month there will be more. April is going to be all about healing generational wounds.

Experiencing healing in our lives is an important aspect of understanding our value. When we look in the mirror and see someone broken, sick, unwanted, or worthless, how can we celebrate and protect the preciousness of the life God has given us?

This Easter, let Christ come into our lives and heal us from all the afflictions of our hearts, souls, and bodies, as well as from all the vain deceits that seek to steal from us the strength we need to live our lives as God desires us to—so that we can love him as he loves us.

For, as the Gospel says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Amen.