May the words of
my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O
God, for you are our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
The
resurrection of Jesus is kind of a big deal. It’s the crux of our faith. It the
center of our Gospel. Without the resurrection, who would we be as Christians?
The resurrection of Jesus is kind of a big deal, but how much do we really and
truly understand it? It’s one of the great mysteries of our faith. The folks in
Corinth were certainly struggling with it, questioning the bodily resurrection
of Jesus, and wrote to Pastor Paul to try and get some answers.
Paul,
in his response back to the church in Corinth, writes of the absolute necessity
of the resurrection, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and
you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have
perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people
most to be pitied.” The Corinthians are struggling with the image of the resurrection
of the dead, imagining corpses of their loved ones being brought back to life.
I’m sure most of us would have an issue with this as well. But does Jesus physically
rise from the dead and is wandering around the world? Is that what happens to
us after we die? Does resurrection mean the raising of the physical body of the
dead?
For
Paul, everything stands and falls on the resurrection. If there is no
resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised from the dead, which
means we have not defeated death, and the faith of the church is empty and
without meaning. To claim there is no resurrection is not only to deny the
victory of life over death and love over fear but also denies the culminating
Kingdom of God initiated by Christ’s resurrection. If Christ was not raised,
then the Kingdom is not at hand. To deny the bodily resurrection is to deny the
resurrection of Jesus, which is to deny the Good News.
Without
the resurrection, everything collapses – our proclamation is in vain thus we
are false witnesses of God; our faith is in vain and futile; we are still bound
by our sins; and those who have died in Christ are lost forever. In other words,
if there is no resurrection, then death wins, and love dies. All of this is at
the center of our Christian faith – we are connected to each other through the
resurrection of Christ. But does resurrection mean the resuscitation of a dead
body? That is what the Corinthians are asking of Paul. In our short piece
today, it’s not totally clear what Paul’s answer is about the physical aspects
of the resurrection, only that believing in bodily resurrection isn’t optional.
But, as you read further into the chapter, Paul tells us that our bodies of flesh
and blood will not inherit the Kingdom of God, but that when we die, we will be
changed. When our mortal bodies put on immortality, then we will be reunited
with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
When
we’re talking about resurrection and the defeat of death, we’re not talking about
the Walking Dead. We’re not talking about zombies wandering about the Earth. Paul
clarifies that the resurrection bodies he has in mind are spiritual bodies
resulting from a radical transformation. When you consider Jesus’ story, his
body is not the same after death as it is before death. Jesus’ body changes –
he can disappear and reappear at will; he can walk through walls and doors; he
can appear all bright and shiny; and he can appear in disguise if he doesn’t
yet want to be known. This doesn’t sound like the same body of the Nazarene
carpenter, does it?
Paul’s
experience of seeing the resurrected Christ changed his perspective on what God
was doing for God’s creation. God’s life-giving power had invaded the cosmos
and conquered death by resurrecting Jesus. With this act, God declared sure and
certain victory over death. Paul’s gospel promises abundant life through resurrection.
How can there be a promise of abundant life if God is not stronger than death?
If God has not raised Jesus from the dead, then there is no hope that God will
raise anyone else.
The
resurrection of the body stands at the core of being Christian. Belief in the
resurrection of the body is what moves Christianity from an ethical code of
conduct to pursuing a transformed life. Being Christian is more than just being
good. Without the resurrection, Christian faith is reduced to little more than
a moral code to guide us on how to live a good life. It is in light of the
resurrection that we can understand what it means to give one’s life up for
another. It is in light of the resurrection that we can understand what it
means to stand with the oppressed and neglected. It is in light of the
resurrection that we can join Christ in caring and seeking justice for the
vulnerable people in our society.
Belief
in the resurrection joins us all in a deeply personal response to the love of
God revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a love that
is incarnate and eternal, embodied in our world today just as much as it was
2000 years ago. It gives birth to faithful mission and grace-filled pastoral
care. At the core of the gospel is a God who refuses to abandon creation to the
corrupting powers of sin and death. At the core of the gospel is a God of life
and love. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are all
connected in and through God’s love. And that is good news indeed.
Amen.
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