In an effort to help prepare our hearts for tomorrow’s Resurrection Sunday celebration, our past couple of posts in this series have highlighted Paul’s comments to the Church in Corinth regarding Jesus’ resurrection. Paul addressed the issue by masterfully employing a typical Pharisaical teaching mechanism, which involved opening a dialog by asking a provocative question. In this case, Paul basically asked this . . . 

• • In reference to our faith in Jesus and the new covenant Jesus instituted at the Last Supper, what difference would it make if the resurrection didn’t really happen?
  • What if Jesus never walked out of that tomb and His body just decomposed like anyone else’s?

Paul’s conclusion in response to that question was shocking to his readers then, and should certainly get our undivided attention now. He said: 

And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God… And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. (1 Corinthians 15:14; 17–19 NKJV)

One Powerful Word ~
So, having seen Paul’s divinely inspired evaluation of what it would mean if Jesus had never risen, we must not overlook his concluding response. He lays to rest the entire resurrection question in terms that could not have been simpler, nor that could have conveyed a message with greater significance to Jesus followers then and to those who call themselves “Christians” today. Sitting in a prison in Caesarea Maritima, Paul dipped his quill and with one small, incredibly powerful verb, he thundered out a declaration that has resonated around the world – a declaration that will stand forever:   

But now Christ IS risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep [who have died]. (1 Corinthians 15:20 NKJV)

The bottom line is this … Jesus’ resurrection was real and so is the Kingdom He came to establish. The resurrection is foundational to everything Jesus came to do. Tomorrow’s celebration is more than a religious tradition. It’s an opportunity for us to pause and consider what God really did. The flawless Lamb of God who offered Himself on our behalf and rose triumphant over the condemnation and death we all deserve was the greatest display ever of God’s heart for those created to be like Him. The cross and the empty tomb present a graphic demonstration of God’s insuppressible love for us, the incredible genius of His plan to redeem us, and the awful price He was willing to pay to restore the relationship with us that He had lost in Eden. There is no more significant or compelling story or series of events to be found than this one. But that presents a bit of a problem for me.

No Rabbit Trails Today ~
When I sit down at my keyboard to endeavor to write about it, my mind wants to chase every subtle concept, every enlightening cultural facet, and every doctrinally significant tidbit that weaves in and out of the story. But today’s not a day for chasing rabbits, regardless of how enticing they might be. It’s the day before Easter. Everybody’s busy with things that leave little time for reading. So, today, I’ll try to ignore the tempting rabbit trails and make one brief observation . . . 

To do that, I need to emphasize one of those doctrinal jewels Paul pointed out repeatedly. He declared that in response to our faith in Jesus, God considers each of us to have been personal participants in Jesus’ crucifixion and subsequent resurrection. Paul said it this way in his letter to the Colossians:

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, (Colossians 2:13 NKJV)

Interesting Questions ~
My simple observation begins with a couple of questions: 

• • What world was Jesus in when He walked out of the tomb? 
  • Was it inhabited by the same kinds of people that were living there when He died? 

It’s obvious, isn’t it? Jesus rose and re-entered the same world He died in. He didn’t evaporate from the tomb and drift back into Heaven. The risen Christ didn’t emerge as a ghost, or some kind of spiritual apparition. He returned as a physical human belonging to the same world He left. So think about this  . . 

• • What did He intend to do in the world He re-entered? 
  • Did He tell His beloved followers to just hang on until they died or until He came back for them? 
  • Or did He tell them that He had a mission to accomplish and a Kingdom to establish? 
  • Did He indicate that not only was He not abandoning His work, but was actually going to expand and multiply it? 

We touched on that last week, and it’s important because it merges with a perspective Paul had and that I believe God wants us to share.  If we are, indeed, crucified with Christ as Paul declared (Galatians 2:19–20), that event happened at some time and place in this world. If God considers us to have been raised with Jesus (Romans 6:4), doesn’t it make sense that our resurrection was a kind of re-entry into the same world we left? 

The world doesn’t need another story about some far off utopia in the future where our faults are corrected, where righteousness reigns, and our old way of life is transformed. The world needs to see us as sort of the same in many ways, but virtually unrecognizable in others. The world that needs to see that our resurrection isn’t somewhere out in space beyond the galaxies. It’s the same world we were living in when we “died” with Jesus and then “rose again” with Him. It’s right here and waiting for us – right now.

A Transformational Perspective ~
And there’s one more thing . . . We generally think that “life after death” is something relegated to the future, something that begins when “this life” is over. But God sees it differently. Because of the crucifixion and resurrection we share with Jesus, we’re actually enjoying “life after death” right now. We should welcome Resurrection Sunday as a time to renew our commitment to the mission the Risen Christ sent us to fulfill, and follow in His footsteps to show a world wallowing in death what “life after death” looks like.

So, maybe when someone offers the familiar, “Hallelujah, He is Risen!” greeting tomorrow, we could even add a little … “And so am I!” under our breaths. Somehow, I really think Jesus would be okay with that.  How about you?

~ HAVE A ‘GLORIOUS’ RESURRECTION SUNDAY CELEBRATION!! ~

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