Raised from the Dead. Easter Day 2012

Psalm 16:
Luke 24. 1-12
1 Cor 15. 1-11

"Conversion of St Paul" by Caravaggio
Public Domain

Once there was a young, studious, devout tentmaker called Saul of Tarsus, who hated the very name and teaching of Jesus with a vengeance.  The very idea that Jesus Christ could be the Messiah was to him totally wrong.  The very idea that Jesus Christ could possibly have risen from the dead, was preposterous, an outrageous deception for which his followers deserved all they got.  So he stood and watched with approval as a Church leader called Stephen was stoned to death by the Jews in Jerusalem for his faith in Jesus. Then, inspired by being part of that, and shocked that the Jesus thing was spreading to places like Damascus in Syria, he started his own campaign. He got a warrant from the high priest in Jerusalem and headed for Damascus - but towards the end of his journey, he met Jesus.  A brilliant light surrounded him and felled him like a rotten tree: he heard a voice "Saul, why are you persecuting me?"  He answered, "Well who are you?"  And the Voice said, "I am Jesus, the one whose very name you hate, the one you are giving such a bad time to."  The one he believed to be dead, was talking to him.

That changed everything for Saul. Eventually, even his name.  For the rest of his life he was sold out, helplessly madly obsessed with Jesus. His whole life was about serving this Jesus.  He was passionately convinced that Jesus is alive. He stood with the community of men and women like Peter, James, John, Mary Magdalene and hundreds of others who had been in Jerusalem in the weeks after the resurrection of Jesus, who knew that Jesus is alive, because they had seen him.  Like them, the encounter had made all the difference.  Angels and the empty tomb didn't convince them: what convinced them was encountering Jesus Himself.

What Paul says in 1 Cor 15 is very similar to what Peter says in his first sermon in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, the first time he spoke out in public about Jesus.  Listen to what Peter says:
"Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know-- this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it." Act 2:22-24  


It's so matter of fact. It's not first of all a doctrine. It's an event. Something that happened. God raised him up. Paul, Peter, John, and Mary say, "We are witnesses. We saw him."

Like Saul, they weren't expecting it. Despite the Old Testament prophecies (such as Psalm 16 - which Peter quoted in his talk in Acts 2); despite the promises of Jesus himself.  This whole resurrection thing had totally taken them by surprise.  So they tell the story, in the Gospels, with a confused breathless excitement: it's an eyewitness account. And so, when the Holy Spirit has come to them, they tell the story again. "We saw him.  And so Paul, in talking about the resurrection says, "I saw him. He appeared to me..." It was a matter of fact.

It was an essential fact.  Like Peter and the very first believers, the resurrection of Jesus was fundamental to being a follower of Jesus.  It's not negotiable.  Paul says, "If Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, we are the stupidest and most pitiable people on the planet." (1 Cor 15. 17-19)  The resurrection is not negotiable.  It's key to Christianity. It's a core belief.  It's fundamental to faith. What it means to be a Christian is to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead.  Paul says

 "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Rom 10:9   

The most basic Christian creed is this: "Jesus is Lord!"  A Christian is someone who can say, "Jesus is Lord!" A Christian is someone who believes in her heart that Jesus is alive.  We have developed "spiritual laws" and the "way of salvation" to try to sum up what a person needs to accept in order to be saved.  Maybe we over-complicate things. The New Testament's answer is refreshingly simple.  It's just this:  "Believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and you will be saved."

We don't have to understand how the Cross works; we don't need to know what original sin is all about.  We simply need to believe that Jesus is alive and be prepared to say, "Jesus is Lord!" in our own lives.  It's that simple. On the day of Pentecost when Peter had finished preaching and everyone asked him "What should we do about Jesus?" he put it like this "repent and be baptized".  Jesus himself said, "Repent and believe".

The resurrection of Jesus is the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle that makes everything else (other Christian ideas) fall into place.  It is the final answer that makes sense of the death of Christ.  Peter says on the day of Pentecost it was not possible for him to be held by it. We sometimes talk about a bull in a china shop.  The point is that when the bull has been in the china shop, there's not much left of the china shop.  When Jesus entered "death", because he is God, and because the sting of death is sin, and he had dealt with sin, he entered death like a bull in a china shop.  That wonderful hymn of Charles Wesley's says, "Christ has burst the gates of hell." Hallelujah!

Coritnth was a Greek port city where everyone tried to be trendy and sophisticated.  Paul becaame awawre that that Christians in Corinth, were picking up trendy but wrong ideas about what happens to us after we die..  He wanted them to have a hope for the Future.  And a correct understanding of the future flows from knowing the Jesus rose from the dead. He says:

"Grape cluster"  by "Dragonflyir"
used under
Creative Commons license

"But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21  For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive."  1Co 15:20  

I've conducted two funerals in the last fortnight. The good news is that both Sarah and Rosemary had met with Jesus.  So for both of them, we believe in the resurrection.  We believe that Sarah and Rosemary will be given new bodies; Sarah won't have diabetes. Rosemary won't have cancer. They won't just have patched together remains of their old bodies. They will have brand new bodies. But they won't be ghosts.  They will be themselves: more fully and totally themselves than they have ever been before.

Why do I believe that? Because Christ rose as the "firstfruits" of those who have fallen asleep.  Sometimes people ask me "What will it be like in heaven? Will I recognize uncle Fred?"  The answer is simple. Look at Jesus. His resurrection body was the first fruits, the model for ours.  He was recognizable. People knew it was Jesus. But he was "different". He was not restricted by time and space. He had a real body but it was spiritual.  Not less real. Just less limited.  That is part of our Christian hope for the future.  We shall rise; and we shall meet with all those who have gone before us.

And, knowing that is what lies ahead of us, nothing fazes us. Nothing else can hurt us, because nothing else matters. We know we have met Jesus, the living Jesus. Being a Christian is a life of encounter with the living Jesus. And we know we're going to live for ever. So we want to serve him with everything we have and are.


© Gilmour Lilly April 2012