Today is Easter Sunday. Across the world, millions of Christians have celebrated and are celebrating the resurrection from the dead of Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter and itinerant rabbi who was nailed to a Roman cross outside Jerusalem 2000 years ago.
It is the high point of celebration in the church calendar. We say to one another, “He is risen!” We clap each other on the back. We sing happy songs with upbeat tempos, and many people spend the day with family or friends. It is a good day.
Really, though, what difference does Easter make? At first blush the resurrection story smacks of legend and myth, but if Jesus really did rise from the dead, even the cynical would have to admit that’s pretty cool. But even if it is true… So what? It’s good for Jesus, obviously, but what difference does it make to us? We are two thousand years and six thousand miles away.
Celebrating Easter seems a bit like celebrating someone else’s wedding or graduation: We are impressed with the achievement, we enjoy the celebration, but ultimately it does not have much to do with us. We go home at the end of the day and say ‘Great party’, or in our case, ‘Great church service . But tomorrow I go to work, try to raise the kids, the car still breaks down, I watch the playoffs and pay my taxes… What does Easter Sunday have to do with Monday through Saturday?
So, this morning, let us ask two questions: Is it even true that Jesus rose from the dead? And if so, secondly, what difference does it make?
Good questions, both.
Because if it is not even true, then there is no sense even talking about it, and we are wasting our time. Christians are deluded; Christians should be pitied, if not outright mocked.
And if it is true, I still need to know why it matters. Even as Christians, why emphasize the resurrection? Isn’t it Jesus’ death by which our sins are paid for? Doesn’t the Bible say that it was on the cross that Jesus disarmed the evil spiritual forces? Didn’t Paul say that we preach Christ crucified? Are we not pretty focused on the suffering and death of Christ these days.
The cross matters. We know that. But couldn’t Christianity get along just as well without the Resurrection? What difference does the resurrection make?
Let us begin with the question: is it even true? Did it really happen? Isn’t the resurrection one of those myths that are part of the package of our religion, but that no one really takes seriously? To believe in the resurrection is purely a faith issue, isn’t it, something that we believe against all reason?
Let me state for the record that I believe in the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ, that the resurrection is an historical fact. In fact, I think in light of the evidence, that it is more irrational not to believe that the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened.
Further, let’s be clear that if there was no real resurrection, that if the resurrection of Christ is a myth or legend that grew up over time around the religion of Jesus, then Christianity falls. If Jesus Christ was not raised from the dead, then there is no Christianity. In 1 Corinthians 15 the Apostle Paul wrote, If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Jesus from the dead… If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
We want to know the truth. If the resurrection of Christ did not happen, then we want to know that so we can be free from our delusion. Is the resurrection a true, historical event? We need to consider three things: First, did Jesus really die in the first place? Second, can the empty tomb be explained another way? Third, can the appearances of Christ after his resurrection be accounted for without a resurrection?
First, as to the question, ‘Did Jesus really die?’
We need to start here for an obvious reason: if he didn’t die, then the issue of rising from death becomes moot. Besides that, one of the popular explanations for the resurrection has been that Jesus did not die on the cross, but fainted from pain and exhaustion, so that they thought he was dead. In the tomb, the cool damp air revived him, hence his ‘resurrection’.
But consider this: The Roman soldiers at the cross were trained to kill. It was their job to make sure that the victims died. If a prisoner somehow survived and escaped, the soldiers would be executed, so they had a stake in making no mistakes about it. If crucifixions wore on, they broke the legs of the victims to speed up the dying process. They did not break Jesus’ legs because they were convinced he was dead. But they did thrust a spear into his side to be extra sure.
Suppose, though, that Jesus did faint and was revived in the tomb: Having had the flesh on his back shredded by flogging, having been beaten several more times, having had a nail driven through his wrists and his feet, having a spear thrust through his side, could this Jesus, then, have somehow moved the stone and appeared to his disciples in such a way as to not evoke pity, but rather convince them that he was victorious over death?
Certainly Jesus died.
As to the second issue: how else can we explain the empty tomb? That is, if Jesus did not rise from the dead, how can the absence of his body be accounted for? Again, a number of theories have been suggested:
Some suggest the disciples stole his body. But the disciples as we read about them were a demoralized lot after Jesus’ death. They were holed up in a room for fear of their own lives, hardly in a position to launch the rescue of a dead body.
Then, to steal the body they’d have had to overpower the trained guards at the tomb, for Pilate had instructed the Jews to make sure the tomb was sealed and guarded against exactly that kind of scenario, according to Matthew 27.
Most significantly, though, to suggest that the disciples stole the body of Jesus is to suggest that they lived the rest of their lives in passionate commitment and ultimately died for what they knew was a lie. Would their theft of the body have transformed the frightened bunch that fled Jesus’ arrest into the bold and courageous preachers that we see just a few weeks later? It’s hard to imagine so.
Charles Colson, former aide to president Nixon, when someone suggests the resurrection is a hoax perpetrated by Jesus’ followers, says this: Watergate involved a conspiracy perpetuated by the closest aides to the president of the United States – the most powerful men in America, who were intensely loyal to their president. But one of them, John Dean, testified against Nixon, as he put it, to save his own skin. And he did so only two weeks after informing the president what was really going on. The cover-up, the lie could only be held together for two weeks before everyone started jumping ship to save themselves…. The disciples, twelve peasants, were not facing embarrassment or political disgrace, but beatings, stonings, and execution. Even political zealots at the pinnacle of their power will, in a crunch, save their own necks, even at the expense of the ones they profess to serve so loyally. But the apostles could not deny Jesus, because they had seen him face to face. You can take it from this expert in cover-ups: nothing less than a resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers that Jesus is Lord.
Did the disciples steal the body, and create the resurrection story as a hoax, for which they lived and died? I cannot believe so!
How else to account for the empty tomb? Did the women and the disciples go to the wrong tomb? Would all of them have made the same mistake? And if that was the case, why did Jesus’ enemies not produce his body as soon as the resurrection story began? That would have stopped the story right away, but they did not do that. There was no body to produce.
Did Jesus enemies move the body to pre-empt the disciples’ possible stealing of it? Again, it would have been a simple matter for them to produce Jesus’ corpse, but they do not do this.
Only a resurrected Jesus accounts satisfactorily for the reality of the empty tomb.
The third issue is the one of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances. How can these be explained?
We read this morning from 1 Corinthians 15 these words: What I received [that is, Paul] I also passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all of the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also [NIV].
The gospels also record Jesus appearing to the women (including his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene), appearing to his disciples in the upper room, appearing to the two men on the road to Emmaus, appearing to Thomas and inviting him the doubting disciple to touch the wounds in his hands and side, and appearing to his disciples on the shores of Galilee, where they spent time talking and eating together. Acts 1 tells us that Jesus spent forty days teaching his disciples between his resurrection and his ascension. Paul adds that he appeared also to Peter specifically, and also to James and, finally, to Paul himself.
How do we explain this if the resurrection didn’t happen?
We’ve already determined that it could not be a hoax involving hundreds.
Could it be hallucination? Could they have imagined seeing Jesus? Five hundred sharing the same hallucination at one time? Others having the same hallucination at different times and in different places?
What if in their grief they really wanted to believe Jesus was alive, and then convinced themselves that they had seen him. But that doesn’t explain James, who was Jesus’ brother and highly cynical and skeptical. Jesus’ brothers thought he was crazy or else selfish and motivated by ambition. Or Paul, the enemy and persecutor of the church. What could have motivated James and Paul to create and believe the illusion of Jesus’ resurrection?
Paul also does something interesting in the passage we looked at: he says that most of the people Jesus appeared to are still alive. That is, he implies that what he is telling you can be checked, confirmed.
Did the resurrection happen? Well, Jesus certainly died, and the resurrection fits the evidence of the empty tomb, the appearances of Christ, and the commitment unto death of the disciples.
Consider also that the church was born in the very city where Jesus had been publicly crucified just weeks prior. People knew of the crucifixion, and it would have been a relatively simple matter to discover the truth if Jesus had not risen. Instead, three thousand people believed in one day.
Is the resurrection true? I think an honest look at the evidence indicates yes.
Which leads us to our second question: What difference does it make? Why does it matter? Not in a generic importance, but why does it matter to me, not just today, but every day of my life?
I’d like to give two reasons from the Bible that the resurrection matters to you:
First, the resurrection matters because of what it affirms about Jesus’ identity, and that has practical implications for us.
The Bible says in Romans 1:4 that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead [NIV]. This is a very significant verse. There is this man Jesus, a carpenter from Nazareth, who teaches about the kingdom of God. People flock to hear him teach because he teaches with authority. But in his teaching, he begins to make bold and startling claims concerning his unique and eternal relationship to God. God is his Father, and Jesus is himself divine. He demonstrates some supernatural ability when he heals people, raises others from death, commands demons to flee and causes storms to be stilled.
Not that this proved his claims. Old Testament prophets like Elijah and Elisha had also performed such miracles. But they had not claimed divinity. So Jesus, if was a true prophet of God but not divine, would not have made claims to divinity. If he made such claims but was not a prophet, he would not have had God’s power to perform miracles. So people weren’t quite sure what to make of him.
And if Jesus had died and stayed dead, Jesus would have been proved a fraud. To paraphrase theologian Hendrikus Berkhof: Without the resurrection, all we have is the late Jesus. He can only be a teacher and example, but not even that. If there was no resurrection, he was too mistaken about himself to be a good teacher, and clothed himself with too much divine authority to be an example.
But when God raised Jesus from the dead, God vindicated him and declared powerfully that Jesus was in fact the Son of God. God, by raising Jesus from death, put his stamp of approval on Jesus‘ ministry, and so validated Jesus’ claims about himself.
Now remember, we’re asking, ‘So what difference does it make to me?’
If Jesus is indeed the Son of God, it means that Christianity is true. It means that Jesus lays divine claim to our loyalty, worship and service. It means that we belong to him. It means that our lives are to be centred on Christ, not simply including Christ in some way. It means that if you are not a Christian, you ignore Christ at your peril. Jesus had some things to say about God and us, about sin and eternity, about what our lives should be and what the consequences of our lives will be. If the resurrection is true, and Jesus is the Son of God, surely he must be taken seriously.
If you are a Christian, then the resurrection means our faith is not futile. It means what we believe is true. It means you’re not living a fairy tale with no substance. It means that when you love Christ, he receives it. When you obey him, you’re doing right. When you stand up and bear testimony about him to others, you are vindicated, no matter the response. It means you have a anchor that is secure and have not put your hope in something that will prove false. It means that every moment lived for Christ’s sake is lived truly, rightly.
Why does the resurrection matter to you tomorrow and every day? Because every day lived in the reality of Christ’s Lordship is life as it should be: right, true, centred, deeply satisfying. And every day lived outside of that reality is a day lost, a day in rebellion, a day without meaning, a day closer to destruction (for if we choose to ignore Christ, wanting nothing to do with him here in this life, God will give us in eternity what we have chosen, separation from Christ. That’s what Hell is.)
So the resurrection matters because it declares Jesus to be the Son of God, and Lord of your life and mine.
The second reason the resurrection matters to you and me every day is because it allows us to live in hope. See, the great enemy is death. We live in fear of it. We spend money and energy trying to stave it off, to ignore it, delay it, or deny it. But death comes to all. There’s a depressing finality to that, that no matter how I live or what I achieve, at some point I will leave this life with nothing.
But in Christ, death no longer has the final word. Death has been defeated. Death still comes, but death does not win. Jesus said, He who believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live. Romans 6 says that we who are in Christ share in his resurrection. Jesus also said, I am going to prepare a place for you, that where I am there you may be also.
The resurrection matters because it means that this life is not all there is. There is a life to come, there is hope for a future. Next Sunday we’ll look at what the Bible teaches about heaven. But heaven is possible for us because of the resurrection. Death must release its grip. The one who conquered death conquers it for us.
So the words of 1 Corinthians 15 become our words: O death, where is your sting? Where is your victory, O grave?
There is hope for us. Hope that as we age we are not coming to the end. Hope that in this world where there is much pain to be experienced in life, that there is a life to come where sin and death and pain and all that is wrong will be no more. Jesus’ resurrection sealed for us our participation in that new life.
The resurrection matters for two reasons: First, it declares Jesus to be the Son of God, which means he is Lord of our lives. And if perhaps Easter Sunday is the only time in the year you go to church and think about Jesus, I suggest that Jesus’ Lordship asks for your whole life, and I encourage you to give that some thought, explore Jesus more fully, and so on. CS Lewis has said, ‘If Christianity is not true, it is of no importance. If it is true, it is of utmost importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.’
Second, the resurrection enables us to live in hope, for death has been conquered, and we, by faith in Christ, anticipate life eternal where, as the Bible puts it, there will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain.
Jesus Christ is Lord. Death has no victory.
Praise and honour and glory and love be to the risen Saviour, Jesus the Son of God!
Amen.