20 April 2014 - risen indeed

20 April 2014 - risen indeed

There are a lot of ideas about who Jesus was out in the culture.  And most people aren't so generous as to suggest that he is a prophet or Elijah, let alone the Son of God.  Was he just a revolutionary?  A spiritual leader teaching universal spiritual truths?

We might profitably ask, 'why does he appear in history at all?'  And if we want to ask this question we ought to ask it of those who put him there: his disciples.  What do they have to say about him?

They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

This resurrection is not simply a spiritual reality.  The terminology, NT Wright demonstrates, can only refer to bodily resurrection.  We may have a hard time comprehending such a thing.  But the disciples clearly understand that the normal laws of death and decay have been reversed. 

When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.

This is how they understand it.  Resurrection forms the core of the earliest parts of the New Testament.  Almost without exception the witnesses to it gain nothing by their witness.  They are martyred for this truth for generations.  They are able to do this precisely because it is a real thing, not a subjective strategy for having good spiritual feelings.

“The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.”

Because it is real they believe that where Jesus goes they will also follow.  His resurrection power even now gives them power to spread the good news.  It gives us the same power.  And together we even hope to share in the resurrection of the body on the last day.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.

Christ is risen!  The tomb is empty!  Let us "seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God."  Let us seek the resurrection power which he even now pours out through his Spirit in us.  This is how we prepare ourselves and the world for last day when all will rise, some to eternal death.  But for those of us with this new life within us we hope to rise to life eternal with Jesus, seated on high with God.