1st Corinthians 15:12-19 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, for we have testified 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 of all people most to be pitied.

I must say that I have always been intrigued by the Apostle Paul’s candor in this passage. Paul does not hedge his bets on the doctrine of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and indeed he unapologetically states that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then all he has preached, all he has believed in, and all the hope he has placed in a future of eternal life, is futile and meaningless. If Jesus Christ did not rise, human beings are sure to sin continually and only suffering and death awaits us in the end. For Paul, if the Resurrection of Jesus is a myth then the whole structure of the Christian faith collapses. No Resurrection-No Christian faith! Paul’s candor about the importance of the Resurrection leads me to conclude several things. Things that I believe still have great import for us today…

1. Without the Resurrection of Jesus, man’s age-old quest for immortality must begin again. Let’s get very real for a moment here. If Jesus was crucified by the Romans (a punishment experienced by thousands of rebels against the Roman regime) and was laid in a tomb to never rise again, then Jesus of Nazareth was perhaps a great moral teacher in the tradition of the Jewish rabbis of the past, but he was clearly not all that he claimed to be. In John 10:30 Jesus claimed to be the giver of eternal life. If Jesus died, to never rise again thereafter, then what reason do we have to be confident in him for eternal life? Christianity without it’s central offer of eternal life to all those who will believe in Jesus Christ, is a truncated faith robbed of it’s true power and greatness.
2. The Resurrection cannot be “mythologized” and still retain its’ power. Some very liberal Christian theologians such as John Shelby Spong and John Dominic Crossan have concluded that the historical evidence is against Jesus Christ rising again in the flesh on the third day. However, in an attempt to salvage the Christian message, they will argue that the Resurrection can be viewed “metaphorically” and that the risen Jesus the early Christians experienced was a subjective one. This line of reasoning has lead to such jarring (and may I say foolish) affirmations such as “I believe in the risen Lord, but not the empty tomb.” Such an understanding will simply not do in Paul’s theology. For the early Christian church, the risen Jesus was someone who could be touched, who could eat with his disciples, who could be experienced just as really as before his crucifixion.
3. There is no doctrine more central to the Christian faith than the Resurrection of Jesus. As I stated before, Paul does not hedge his bets on the doctrine of Jesus’s Resurrection. In Paul’s estimation, if Jesus did not rise again then Christianity is deprived of all of its’ truth value. Does Paul ever speak of any other doctrine in quite this manner in the New Testament? Now, let me say that this should not lead us to conclude that all doctrines outside of the Resurrection are not important. Indeed, all Christians ought to believe in the Trinity and the authority of the Holy Scriptures. However, it is undeniable that Paul thought that the doctrine of the Resurrection held a unique and central place in the corpus of Christian doctrine.

As I write this “Resurrection Reflection” for Easter 2018, the Apostle Paul reminds me of the centrality, the wonder, and the beauty of the Resurrection of Jesus. I am reminded of the historical evidence for Jesus’ Resurrection. I am reminded of the fact that his disciples were willing to give their lives for the cause of Jesus. Is it rational to conclude that they would die for a “metaphorical” Jesus, a product of their own imaginations? Perhaps most of all I am given comfort and joy because I know that my redeemer lives and because of that eternal life is sure. Thus I say, this Easter 2018, with the Christians of the past: He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!