24 April 2014 - resurrection paradigm

24 April 2014 - resurrection paradigm

The truth of the resurrection seems hard to believe.  The reason for this is that for all human history prior to Jesus death has the last word.  Great men live, they make some difference in history, but they die in the end, whether Socrates, Caesar, or Buddha.  We try to fit Jesus into this context rather than imagining the possibility that the paradigm has changed.  But Jesus is not just one among the historical dead.  His resurrection is not a spiritual connection to some distant world of the dead.

“Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”

Jesus wants to reveal to each of us the reality of his resurrection.  He wants to show us that it is something which really impacts the concrete history of the universe.  It is not mainly a new way to think or to contextualize the things which already are.  It is indeed a new way to think and a new context.  But it is these things because it is a new power in history which is heretofore unknown.

Lest we be taken totally by surprise, we are reminded that this is God's plan from the beginning.  We just can't understand it until we encounter the risen LORD.  Now that he is risen the Scriptures themselves share in the power of his resurrection.  They make our hearts burn within us.

“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

Our risen LORD, by the very fact of his resurrection, is able to open our minds in this way.  Are our minds open to understand the Scriptures?  It is our baptismal birthright!  Let us not shrink from it.  It isn't that we have to be scholars and understand abstraction and nuance.  However, we must, absolutely must, experience his power in his word.  It is a necessary precursor to the mission which he has for us and indeed for all Christians:

“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”

Only a real resurrection empowers real healings.

The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
And by faith in his name,
this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong,
and the faith that comes through it
has given him this perfect health,
in the presence of all of you.

And we doubt these for the same reason we try to downplay the resurrection.  Our expectation is that suffering and death will continue as they always have.  So let our minds be opened by the risen Jesus.  His power in the Scripture can change our expectations.  It can open us to his healing power.  And finally, it can make us witnesses to the whole world.  The world is in desperate need of "times of refreshment" and it longs for the "universal restoration".  These things have long been promised in the Scriptures.  But the Scriptures are locked until we meet the risen Christ.  But now he opens our minds to understand them.  We can no longer keep this promise of blessing to ourselves.  Now that Jesus is risen the world can finally be restored.  The dignity of man, which man was always meant to have, can be restored.  People need to know it!

You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.