Our culture resists the idea of Jesus’ physical resurrection. Most of the recent Easter cards reflect this. While there are motifs of new life, new birth, and even renewal, rarely is the word ‘resurrection’ mentioned. Theologians don’t always help, for some will tell us at Christmas that Jesus was not born of a virgin, and at Easter that he was not physically raised from the dead.
Hugh McKay, a Sydney commentator, once put it this way: ‘The historical, literal truth about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, has little connection with the Easter celebration of Christian believers. Faith thrives on doubt and therefore, even if Jesus didn’t live, die and come back to life again, Easter would still have meaning.’ It’s a very attractive view: Jesus’ resurrection is no more than a mystical experience, without any necessary foundation in fact.
FICTION?
But that is one thing the New Testament refuses to accept. For, contrary to what society thinks, what some theologians think and what some ministers preach, the writers of the New Testament are insistent: Jesus’ tomb was empty. Witnesses saw him alive.
One of the remarkable features of the account of Jesus’ resurrection is the witness of women. Under Jewish law at the time, the testimony of a woman was inadmissible and even in Roman society a women’s witness was not treated with equal weight as a man’s. If Jesus’ resurrection was a fiction women would not be the first witnesses: yet all four Gospels record that they were.
Another amazing feature about Jesus’ resurrection is the reference to angels. If I was inventing a story that I wanted others to accept, I would not introduce angelic figures. Having said that, if I thought that introducing angels might make my story about supernatural events more acceptable, I would let the angels speak for themselves, and give their version of what had happened and why. An angelic press conference could be quite remarkable. But all the angel said to the women was: ‘If you want to find Jesus there’s no point in you being here; he is risen.’
G.K. Chesterton once applied some words of Lord Byron to Christianity: Truth is stranger than fiction, he said, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it.
THE UNTHINKABLE
On Monday, September 10, 2001, Judy and I were living just three short blocks from the World Trade Centre. That evening we dined just down from the Trade Centre. If anyone had said to us that on the following morning terrorists would hi-jack two commercial aircraft and crash them into the Trade Centre with innocent passengers on board, we would have said, ‘It wouldn’t happen. It couldn’t happen. It won’t happen’.
We may at first have difficulty understanding the notion of Jesus’ resurrection, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen and didn’t happen. The New Testament witness is consistent: Jesus did physically rise from the dead. In the earliest written account we read: Christ (he) was buried,… he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and… 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… (1 Corinthians 15:4-6).
JESUS’ PHYSICAL RESURRECTION
Peter preached his first sermon about Jesus being raised from the dead less than three miles from the tomb. People could have easily checked for themselves whether the tomb was empty.
Dr John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, in Gunning for God (Lion: 2011, p.212) writes, The empty tomb is important: if it were not empty, you could not speak of resurrection. But we need to be clear that the early Christians did not simply assert that the tomb was empty. Far more important for them was the fact that subsequently they had met the risen Christ… It was nothing less than this that galvanized them into action, and gave them the courage to confront the world with the message of the Christian gospel… The fact that they had personally witnessed these appearances of the risen Christ formed an integral part of that gospel.
God’s good news is good because it is true. It is grounded in fact. Jesus’ resurrection is not fiction. It is the reality that authenticates God’s willingness to forgive us; that gives us hope and joy. It is the reality that surely stirs us to speak with others about God’s gospel.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is often lightly dismissed these days because most people have not taken the time to investigate it. For example, writing about the silence of the New Atheists on the subject of Jesus’ resurrection, Dr. John Lennox, professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford, writes in his Gunning for God (Lion: 2011, p.225): ‘There is a simple reason for that. For all their interest in evidence, there is nothing in their writings to show they have seriously interacted with the arguments (for the resurrection), many of them well known,… The silence of the New Atheism on this matter tells its own story.’
For his part, a former highly respected professor of theology at Cambridge University, CFD Moule, said of the resurrection: ‘If the coming into existence of the Nazarenes, a phenomenon undeniably attested in the New Testament, rips a great hole in history, a hole the size and shape of the Resurrection, what does the secular historian propose to stop it up with?… The birth and the rapid rise of the Christian Church… remain an unsolved enigma for any historian who refuses to take seriously the only explanation offered by the Church itself.
Mr Justice Ken Handley, a former Justice of the Court of Appeal, New South Wales, Australia wrote: ‘Most people who reject the resurrection do so with a closed mind without looking at the evidence. This is irrational and foolish. Jesus, the Son of God, who died to make us right with God, is calling each of us into a relationship with him which will involve faith, repentance, forgiveness and obedience. The Christian’s answers to those nagging personal questions make sense of the Cosmos and our place and purpose in it…’
CONFIDENCE AND VOICE
Too often today the Christian voice has been silenced. Too often we have lost our confidence in what we believe to be true or because we have failed to work at responses to those who would ridicule us. For my part, I am glad that, under God in my undergraduate years at Sydney University, I put in some hard work researching the question of the physical resurrection of Jesus. Without that foundation, humanly speaking, my faith and my witness may not have stood the test of time.
Over this Easter season, I plan to use the Wednesday ‘Word’ to touch on some of the salient elements of Jesus’ resurrection. Indeed, let me encourage you to use this time to refresh your own understanding of the reality and the significance of his resurrection. It is not without significance that every ‘outreach’ sermon in the New Testament affirms that Jesus was raised from the dead.
A good place to start is with 1 Corinthians 15 – possibly the earliest document we have on the subject. Consider: 3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles…
ASSURANCE
Notice what Paul says: he tells us that God’s Messiah, the Christ,died for our sins… He then assures us that Christ was raised from the dead. Knowing that physical resurrection conflicts with our human observation of life, he goes on to present a case, as in a court of law – to argue for the truth and significance of this amazing event. He references eye-witnesses and goes on to present a cogent argument for the reality of the resurrection.
It is noteworthy that the Christian gospel did not come about because a group of fanatics had invented a story about their hero. It didn’t start because a group of philosophers had come to the same conclusions about life. And it didn’t start because a group of mystics shared the same vision about God. It began with a group of eye-witnesses – very ordinary men and women who saw something very extraordinary happen. In a word, God’s good news begins with history.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
REASON FOR HOPE
But God who is rich in mercy… These words are profound and pregnant with meaning. Despite our desperate, flawed condition God took the initiative and stepped in. We were the objects of his wrath, but God, out of the great love with which he loved us, had mercy on us.
Consider how Paul describes that love of God. He doesn’t say simply that God loved us; rather he says, out of the great love with which he loved us. We were dead and the dead don’t rise. But God made us alive with Christ. We were slaves and powerless, but God has set us with Christ in a position of honor and power.
It’s essential that we hold both parts of this contrast together: What we are by nature and what we are by grace; the human condition and the divine compassion; God’s wrath and God’s love.
So what has God done? And why did he do it? Verses 5 and 8 tell us God has saved us – by grace you have been saved. Most of us are so familiar with this traditional language of salvation that its meaning is lost. Paul uses three verbs: in verse 5 we read, God made us alive together with Christ; in verse 6, he raised us up with Him; and in verse 6b He made us sit with Him in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus. The verbs refer to three key events in Jesus’ life: his resurrection, his ascension and his enthronement.
But notice what Paul is saying here: he is speaking about us. He is not writing about Christ, but about you and me. His emphasis is not on God raising Jesus and giving him a position of power and authority, but rather that he’s given us new life, he’s raised us, and he’s seated us with Christ. God has not just given us a new citizenship. He now treats us as royalty.
Why has God done this? Clearly it is not because there was something within us that was intrinsically worthy of merit or God’s special attention. Rather, it was something within God himself that prompted the action. Mercy, love for the outcast is what God has shown us.
So Paul writes: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
There are three foundation words of the gospel here – salvation, grace and faith. Salvation is more than forgiveness – it is deliverance from the death, the slavery, and the wrath, that we’ve already considered (Day 37). Grace is God’s free and undeserved mercy towards us. Faith is the trust with which we receive the gift for ourselves.
THE RESURRECTION
How do we know these statements are true? The resurrection of Jesus Christ bears witness to it.
And there is more: 10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Paul wants us to understand that we are God’s work of art – that our salvation is in fact a masterpiece of creation. In the Sistine Chapel in Rome Michelangelo’s masterpiece, ‘The creation of Adam’, portrays God reaching out to man. Paul wants us to know that God’s masterpiece is of a totally different order. Salvation is not just creation or re-creation: it is a new creation.
Furthermore, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works – good works which God prepared beforehand. Verse 10 ends with a word that we find back in verse 1 – the word walk. Walk is a Hebrew idiom for our manner of life. We are called to be pedestrians, putting one foot in front of the other, moving forward, going somewhere. Formerly we walked in trespasses and sins in which the devil had trapped us. Now we walk in good works that God has eternally planned for us to do.
Through God’s astonishing grace we can be new people. We can go to bed every night with a sense of peace because we know that we have been forgiven. We can wake up in the morning with a sense of purpose and joy. We now have every reason to ask each day, ‘Lord, what good works have you prepared for me to do today?’
You might like to consider:
what the words, but God who is rich in mercy, tell us about God;
what Paul is telling us about salvation – that it is a gift – and the way God now sees us;
how God now expects us to live.
For Further Thought. Ask:
Has this series of Bible readings and Reflections helped you understand more clearly the great themes of the biblical narrative?
Do you have a better idea of your part in God’s story?
What does the Lord want you to do with your life that will make a difference in the city or community where you live?
You might like to pray:
Almighty God, you have conquered death through your dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ and have opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant us by your grace to set our mind on things above, so that by your continual help our whole life may be transformed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen. (BCP, Easter Day)
Teach us, gracious Lord, to begin our works with reverence, to go on in obedience, and finish them with love; and then to wait patiently in hope, and with cheerful countenance to look up to you, whose promises are faithful and rewards infinite; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (An Australian Prayer Book, 1978, A prayer of dedication)
39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding* him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah?* Save yourself and us!’ 40But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ 42Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into* your kingdom.’ 43He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’
44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land* until three in the afternoon, 45while the sun’s light failed;* and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last. 47When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, ‘Certainly this man was innocent.’*48And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. 49But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
THE FOUNDATION OF ALL HOPE: GOOD FRIDAY
The contrasting responses of the two criminals crucified with Jesus could not be starker. One was contemptuous and hurled insults – ‘If you’re the Christ,’ he spat out, ‘then save yourself and us.’ He chose to die disdainful of anything religious. It’s tragic to witness this kind of death for it’s without peace and without hope. Yet every day men and women choose to die that way.
The second criminal was so different: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” This man didn’t pretend to be good: “We are justly deserving death,” he said. Yet in his last hours he seems to have been impressed by Jesus. He saw he was innocent: “This man has done nothing wrong.” Faced with his own impending death he feared God and recognized his need: “Jesus, remember me,” he said. His words were simple and sincere. It seems that in some vague way he understood that Jesus really is God’s special king and so he asked for a place in his kingdom.
His repentance was at the eleventh hour, yet Jesus responded, “I tell you the truth,today you will be with me in paradise.” This man did not die without being forgiven or without hope: for him there would be new life forever.
The scene challenges us to ask what our response to Jesus will be in the last moments of our life – among the contemptuous who choose to die without Christ, or among the believing who choose to die with him? We can be sure of this, when we put our lives in the hands of Jesus as Lord and Savior, his promise rings true: “Today, you will be with me.”
During the last three hours of Jesus’ life an ominous darkness fell the scene. Being Passover, it could not have been an eclipse. Towards the end of this surreal darkness and quiet, there came a shout (23:46) as Jesus breathed his last.
Because crucifixion causes asphyxiation it would normally be impossible for the victim to shout. Luke’s record suggests that Jesus was not physically about to die. His words, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” tell us that death didn’t conquer him; rather he voluntarily surrendered his life. John’ Gospel indicates that Jesus’ shout was one of victory: “It is finished.” His work was done, his sacrifice complete, and the gate to God now open. The torn curtain in the temple (23:45) was testimony to that.
The Roman centurion’s comment is significant: “Certainly this man was innocent.” His words were so true: Jesus was righteous, without fault, the most righteous, the most godly man who has ever lived.
As Isaiah had prophesied: There was no deceit in his mouth(Isaiah 53:9). He didn’t retaliate, but put his life in the hands of the judge who judges justly. In his voluntary sacrifice, he bore our guilt in his body (Isaiah 53:6). He died the death we deserve: the punishment of our sin was laid on him. This is why Good Friday is so good – God in his love has provided the perfect solution to our human tragedy. It is because of Good Friday that there is hope for you and for me.
You might like to reflect:
what it cost Jesus to die on the cross – he could have walked away;
why it was he chose to die;
what Jesus’ death really means for you.
Let me encourage you to pause and pray
Almighty Father, look graciously upon this your family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, Good Friday)
32 Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus* there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah* of God, his chosen one!’ 36The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ 38There was also an inscription over him,* ‘This is the King of the Jews.’
ASSURANCE OF HOPE
The scene around Jesus’ cross was gruesome. He was naked, exposed to the idle curiosity of the crowd and the vulgar frivolity of the soldiers. They offered him wine and made a party of it. “If you are the king of the Jews,” they taunted, “save yourself.” Above Jesus’ head Pilate had written the charge against him: ‘King of the Jews.’ That too brought its own ridicule and scorn, for a cross is a pretty strange throne.
Yet the extraordinary thing is that unlike one of the men crucified with him, Jesus did not curse his tormentors. There was no spirit of revenge. Instead he prayed: “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Many have wondered about these words. Everyone knew he was innocent. Some have suggested he was praying for the soldiers, but if that were the case he would have said, “Father, understand them,” not “Father forgive them.” The soldiers were doing their duty.
We need to consider the larger Gospel narrative and Jesus’ words, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). As Jesus was dying he was praying that God would forgive ignorance of the truth. He was praying for those around him and also for you and me.
We can be sure of this for when the first Christian sermon was preached on the Day of Pentecost, three thousand responded to Peter’s announcement that Jesus was God’s promised Messiah: they repented and were baptized (Acts 2:38). In the days that followed another five thousand received Jesus as their Lord and Savior (Acts 4:4), including many priests (Acts 6:7). God continues to hear the prayer of Jesus on that first Good Friday for our family, our friends and for New York City.
You might like to reflect:
what it cost Jesus to die on the cross – he could have walked away;
why it was he chose to die
consider the irony of the words above Jesus’ head: ‘The King of the Jews’.
And there is more: 10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
The scene challenges us to ask what our response to Jesus will be in the last moments of our life – among the contemptuous who choose to die without Christ, or among the believing who choose to die with him? We can be sure of this, when we put our lives in the hands of Jesus as Lord and Savior, his promise rings true: “Today, you will be with me.”
Many have wondered about these words. Everyone knew he was innocent. Some have suggested he was praying for the soldiers, but if that were the case he would have said, “Father, understand them,” not “Father forgive them.” The soldiers were doing their duty.