Posts Tagged ‘Resurrection’

What makes a Christian different from other persons who have a different theology? The easy answer, of course, is that Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth is both the Lord and Savior of the world. But why should we believe that?

For the early community of those who identified themselves as followers of Jesus, there were two essential elements to the reason this Jewish carpenter-rabbi was to be named Lord of lords and King of kings. The first was that he had risen from the dead and the second was that his disciples lived with an otherwise unexplainable power and hope.

Regarding the first of these two elements, the Apostolic testimony of scripture is clear and focused. Jesus who performed many signs and wonders was unjustly crucified by the powers of this world, but was raised from the dead by God his Father and is now the exalted Savior. Such an extraordinary claim must have been motivated by some extraordinary event. What was their proof? The New Testament tells us that the disciples encountered Jesus alive and gloriously different after his burial. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that he appeared to over 500 persons.

And yet, we know how easily those who are not eyewitnesses to an event can explain it away. But then, that is really no impediment to belief, is it, if the witnesses are credible? In our legal system we depend all the time upon on witnesses to establish facts that can never be demonstrated any other way. All television reporting is nothing but a form of testimony. The credibility of the one’s providing the testimony or the report is the real issue.

Apparently the witness of the first disciples was powerfully credible among the early populace of Jerusalem. We need to remember that the followers of Jesus were not the first or last group of people to claim that their teacher was the Messiah of Israel. Just to name two: there was the revolt of the Maccabees of the 160’s BC and that of Simeon bar Kochba of the 130’s AD. The general attitude about the Messiah was that he would do two things. First, he would free Israel from the oppression of a political power (Rome or some other). Secondly, the Messiah would purify the practices of the Temple and restore right worship in Israel.

Obviously, as N. T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham and a leading New Testament scholar says regarding the crucifixion of Jesus, “The crucifixion of a Messiah did not say to a first-century Jew that he was the true Messiah and that the kingdom had come. It said exactly the opposite.” Jesus demise at the hands of the Romans and his rejection by the Chief Priests would have been overwhelming to the early disciples — unless of course something more overwhelming occured. That is what they claimed.

During the broader period of history of the early Christian movement, those messianic movements who had their leaders killed responded in one of two ways. Either the movement just ended or the movement gathered around a new Messiah, often a relative or relatives. Christianity could have done the latter, but none of Jesus’s brothers were elevated to the status of Messianic status. James, his brother, became a leader in the Jerusalem Church, but was never considered the equal of his brother.

In the face of overwhelming, resistance and persecution, the early disciples forged ahead with their claims that Jesus was the Messiah. Either they were all deceived or something had occured to cause them to be willing to be despised and even killed for the radical claim that JESUS OF NAZARETH WAS ISRAEL’S MESSIAH AND THE WORLD’S SAVIOR.

The early Christian answer was the Resurrection.

Their confidence that Jesus had not been stopped by death was the basis for the Apostles’ belief, as well as the conviction of rest of Jesus’ disciples in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost, that in Jesus God has done something radical and history changing. However, while their personal experience convinced them why were others convinced when they heard the message of the Resurrection?

We worshipped this past Easter Sunday (and we worship every Sunday) because the credibility of their testimony could withstand scrutiny. Ultimately what was it that won people over to the conviction that the message of the early disciples was one worth taking seriously and commiting ones life to? Consider for a moment, what convinced the Jewish and Gentile converts outside of Jerusalem of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus? All they had was the word of a preacher. In other words, at best the information that these converts had was second hand. The answer to that is found in the lives of the disciples and the community of faith. It was the power of their conviction, their willingness to suffer, their commitment to live the life of love that Jesus commanded, and their ministries of compassion and healing. These were the most convincing signs in the Apostolic church and the early Church generally.

While we are far removed from the historical events of the Resurrection, the New Testament scriptures are the written form of the witness to Jesus that the early apostles and disciples proclaimed. These scriptures convey to us the message of the Word of God. The credibility of the scripture is based in the credibility of the early disciples and apostles. There is, therefore, little wonder that those who find the Resurrection too incredible to believe, attack the veracity of scripture or deny that they actually are informed by those who were eye-witnesses to the events of Jesus’ life, death, AND resurrection.

As we have just celebrated Easter in the year 2007, early in the 21st century, we have not rejoiced over an idea, the way some scholars try to spin the message of the Resurrection. We do not merely embrace the idea that God is victorious over death and hopelessness. Rather, in our Easter worship, we have marked the most amazing and cosmos-changing event in all of the history of the universe. God has undone death in Jesus Christ, because he was raised literally and bodily from death and has been exalted by God to be the Lord of all in this world and beyond.

If this is, indeed, true, then we cannot simply nod our heads to it and move along with the rest of our lives. Just as was the case with the earliest disciples, nothing can ever be the same for us. For this reality, the early disciples suffered and changed all of their lives. We must decide if we believe their report; and if we do then we must join them in becoming part of the people of faith that bear witness to the glorious Good News. Our churches, just like our spiritual ancestors of the New Testament Church, must become places where we live with conviction, are willing to to suffer for the truth, and commited to the life of love that Jesus commanded, and minister compassion and healing to others. Then when people ask us why we live this way, we can say to them, because Jesus of Nazareth has been raised from the dead and He is Lord!