โBreakthrough is coming to the Philippines.โ
This hopeful declaration resounds in many churches across the country, especially during Holy Week. With Resurrection Sunday, some Christian leaders proclaim that the same power that raised Christ from the dead will also raise the nation out of crisisโinto prosperity, peace, and blessing.
On the surface, it is a stirring message of hope. But as we celebrate the resurrection, we must ask: What kind of breakthrough are we really talking about? And whose interests does it serve?
When religious leaders invoke โbreakthroughโ to promise divine favor while avoiding honest confrontation with injustice, we risk reducing the resurrection to a feel-good slogan. In doing so, we miss its radical callโnot just to believe in new life, but to live it out by challenging the powers of death still at work in our world today.
Resurrection is not escapeโit is confrontation
The resurrection of Jesus was not a spiritualized promise of individual success. It was Godโs public declaration that death, empire, and injustice will not have the final word. It was a vindication of a life lived in solidarity with the poor, a life that exposed religious hypocrisy and confronted corrupt systems.
To proclaim resurrection, then, is to stand against the forces that crucified Christ in the first placeโgreed, violence, political manipulation, and religious complicity. In the language of prophetic theology, the resurrection is not a shortcut out of suffering, but a summons into the struggle for justice.
โHe has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.โ
โLuke 1:52โ53
This is the spirit of Resurrection Sundayโnot empty celebration, but a dangerous memory of a crucified Savior raised to life as a judgment against death-dealing systems.
Beware the โbreakthroughโ that sells out the Gospel
All too frequently, religious leaders aiming to align themselves with political power repurpose the language of โbreakthroughโ for their own ends. They framed it not as a moral reckoning but as a divine upgradeโfavor in government halls, church growth, access to influence.
But this is not resurrection. It is accommodation.
When churches bless leaders without calling them to repentance, when they speak of national destiny without naming the oppression of workers, farmers, and the urban poor, they preach a gospel of convenience. The prophetic voice is traded for patronage. The hope of the resurrection is reduced to a tool of control.
โThey dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. โPeace, peace,โ they say, when there is no peace.โ (Jeremiah 6:14)
This is not the faith that rolled away the stone from Christโs tomb. This is the faith that guards the tombs of corruption, afraid of what might happen if the people truly rise.
Resurrection as public theology
The church must not limit the celebration of Resurrection Sunday to choirs and cantatas. It must find its voice in public theologyโone that names injustice, walks with the oppressed, and confronts the idols of the age. It means asking hard questions:
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Why do many Christians shout โbreakthroughโ but remain silent on poverty?
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Why do some anoint corrupt leaders while ignoring the cross-shaped path of sacrifice and service?
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And why has the resurrection been made into a tool for triumphalism, instead of the foundation of a justice-centered hope?
Resurrection is not a promise of easy prosperity. It is a call to die to selfishness, pride, and powerโand to rise with Christ into a life that loves mercy, does justice, and walks humbly with God.
A final word to the Church
This Resurrection Sunday, the Philippines does not need more empty declarations of โbreakthrough.โ It needs churches that embody the risen Christ by:
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speaking truth to power,
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repenting of complicity in unjust systems,
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and standing with those whose lives are still crucified by poverty, landlessness, and neglect.
Let the resurrection be more than a symbol. Let it be a threat to every tomb where injustice still hides. The breakthrough that we long for should liberate not just our souls, but our society.
Because the stone was rolled away not to give the disciples a motivational messageโbut to send them out as witnesses to a Kingdom where the last are first, and where love rises even from the grave.
Antonio Manaytay is a pastor, journalist, and editor-publisher of the Daily Sun Chronicle. He is also a fellow of the Nonoy Espina Klima Correspondents Fellowship 2024.
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