Resurrection Day: Easter 2009

"In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; HE HAS RISEN! Remember how He told you, while he was with you in Galilee.'" -Luke 24:5-6

I never knew what Easter was celebrating until I became a Christian. Growing up as a child, our family never went to church (not even for the traditional events of Easter and Christmas). I would wake up on Easter morning, not thinking about the resurrection of Christ, but speculating as to where my Easter basket, filled with candy and possibly a video game, might be located. Truth be told, no one ever told me what exactly was being celebrated on Easter. I wonder how many kids or even adults might have a story like mine or still not know exactly what Easter commemorates.

The resurrection is the centerpiece of Christian theology, thinking, and experience. Upon the historical rising of Christ from the grave, Christians across the globe build their worldview. Paul in Ephesians 2:20 calls Christ Jesus the chief cornerstone of the faith and indeed, the authenticator to Christ having this title is the resurrection. The resurrection event ultimately proves this Man's identity and provides a ringing authority to His teachings.

The resurrection is hope within a dark world on multiple levels. We learn that death is not the end and that we can also trust in Jesus as "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6).

Of course, the resurrection cannot be proven in spite of the best efforts by Christian evidentialists in their various apologetic offerings. A lot of their historical arguments do have merit and certainly are reasonable, however, the resurrection is an event that a person accepts on faith. To deny the resurrection is also a movement of faith.

While virtually all of us Christians believe the resurrection is primary and foremost to our faith, there are still some self-professing Christians who deny the resurrection. In their position, they would not say they deny Christ's rising. Instead, they would claim that His rising is a metaphor that we can believe true in our hearts. Maybe a metaphor for His teachings continuing on through the ages. An excellent moral fable that they can share with future generations.

This version of the resurrection is not Christianity.

The words of the Apostle Paul help us here. "By this gospel you are saved, IF you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all He appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born." -1 Corinthians 15:2-8 (NIV)

Paul continues in the Corinthian letter, "But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God that He raised Christ from the dead. But He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. BUT CHRIST HAS INDEED BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." - 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 (NIV- emphasis mine).

Paul was convinced that this was a physical, literal resurrection. He is not talking about a metaphor or a nice fable story. He is preaching the gospel with one of the key elements being that Christ has historically, and for all time, conquered the grave. Paul endured beatings, torture, imprisonment, and eventually death because he refused to stop preaching this message. The other disciples whom he references in his letter went to their deaths as well, preaching what they believed with all of their hearts to be their Master's resurrection from the tomb.

Christianity does not work and is not true...if the resurrection did not occur. Jesus either rose or He did not. There is no middle ground. Here every person who hears this message makes their decision.

Today, I have complete confidence through faith that Jesus, my Lord and Savior, has conquered death. That He is who He said He was. I know that He has changed my life which mainly involves helping me to see the world today as I do in our contemporary time.

"There are two ways to look at human history, I have concluded. One way is to focus on the wars and violence, the squalor, the pain and tragedy and death. From such a point of view, Easter seems a fairy-tale exception, a stunning contradiction in the name of God. That gives some solace, although I confess that when my friends died, grief was so overpowering that any hope in an after life seemed somehow thin and insubstantial.

There is another way to look at the world. If I take Easter as the starting point, the one incontrovertible fact about how God treats those whom He loves, then human history becomes the contradiction and Easter a preview of ultimate reality. Hope then flows like lava beneath the crust of daily life. This, perhaps, describes the change in the disciples' perspective as they sat in locked rooms discussing the incomprehensible events of Easter Sunday. In one sense nothing had changed: Rome still occupied Palestine, religious authorities still had a bounty on their heads, death and evil still reigned outside. Gradually, however, the shock of recognition gave way to a long slow undertow of joy. If God could do that..." -Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew. Pg. 219-220

He is risen...He is risen indeed!