The Main Thing is the Main Thing: The Resurrection of Christ

 I am going to say something that is not original but about which we need to be reminded. 

Thousands of people, tragically, were crucified during the  Roman Empire. Only one proved through supernatural works that He was the Son of God and rose from the dead, with over 500 eyewitnesses who at the time were willing to die for the truth of what they saw.

The resurrection solidifies the work of the cross.  All the claims in the New Testament about the efficacy of the cross for our justification and so much more are moot without the resurrection.

The experts on this subject are Gary Habermas and N.T. Wright. I refer you to their writings and probably more accessible, their YouTube videos. Habermas lectures a lot about the timeline, and that when Paul wrote I Corinthians 15 in AD 54 or 55, it was about 20 years since the historical incident. "The best part of them are still alive," Paul says. He wasn't afraid of investigation; "go talk to them," is the implication.   In that day, 500 eyewitnesses would have been the pinnacle of proof. 

Today we expect video to corroborate.  Well, video is not a perfect medium. We know that from the January 6 "incident."  Some sources supply video to support one side v. another.  Video can be blurred. Video can be edited and CGI'ed, even AI'ed.  

Five hundred eye witnesses? The legal profession has spent a lot of money to fund research to show eyewitness testimony is unreliable (look it up  https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/02/jn), and of course it is when the witness is one person in a stressful situation. The famous "invisible gorilla" video shows that. But Paul says, "OK, we don't have a few random hallucinations or delirious people. We have 500 plus who didn't want to believe it because WE KNOW people don't rise from the dead after crucifixion, spearing, and three days in a tomb without medical care." These were not stupid, superstitious people--Judaism of that time was not paganism. These were not people who wanted to believe it. These were not people expecting it to happen.  The New Testament writers make that very clear--that some doubted after several appearances (see Matthew 28). 

We all remember exactly what we did on September 11, 2001. But most of us only saw mediated images of it, and we have heard stories since.  Same with the Challenger Disaster, JFK's assassination, and my favorite, the moon landing (the hardest for me to believe through video, even though I watched it on TV at 13--they actually could send video images 250,000 miles through space?).  Paul writes 20 years later. And he writes, "Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead do not rise." (I Corinthians 15: 15). And he adds later, "And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour?" (why are we living for a lie and in danger of constant persecution?)

Skeptics can provide examples of cult followings, as in groups believing that aliens are coming to visit earth and remove the faithful, Jonestown where there was mass but forced suicide, where masses of people believed something and stood by it, But these are not the same, and they probably grew from misunderstandings of Scripture. Paul says to those of his time, "Go do the research, talk to these people."

Yet..... I am teaching the passage about poor ol' Doubting Thomas (not fair) tomorrow morning, whom Jesus reminds, "You get to see the risen Christ. Your friends here all said it was true, and it wasn't enough.  In the future, the blessed and happy will be those who believe without the physical right in front of them and who believe the testimony of faithful witnesses."

There is a lot to be said about the resurrection--so much, as John says about Christ, that all the books could not contain it. We tend to talk about it at Easter, which is very unfortunate. It's so central that it should be discussed every week.  The Christian faith is not about a list of do's and don'ts, but about this core truth, this gospel. It didn't just make it possible for us to go to "heaven," whatever faulty ideas we have about "heaven"; that is such a weak and incomplete view of the truth of the risen Jesus, just Faith 101. The resurrection altered reality, the cosmos, the created order, as will His second Advent.  

I was challenged by someone to "stand for the truth." This person's motives are cloudy, but they were right. (And by the way, I don't like using "they" for gendered pronouns, but it is acceptable now, even prior to the transgendered movement, and it hides things.) There is only one truth I am concerned about standing for, the gospel, of which the resurrection is the linchpin. Political truth will pass away; Christian nationalism is a cultic thing. Academic truths are mostly a fashion that goes out of style (DEI, anyone?) Any time the faith is wedded to a human ideology it will be a widow in ten years.  

To quote Orwell, In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.