1 Peter 1: 3 – 9 John 20: 19 – 31
Driving back from Bristol on Easter Monday afternoon we were listening on Radio 4 to the programme “Beyond Belief” where the participants were discussing the resurrection of Jesus.
The main discussion was between two Christian academics (speaking from rather different perspectives) and a Jewish academic. This part of the programme was reasonable, interesting and well done. But in the middle the presenter interspersed an interview with the former Anglican Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway. Richard Holloway presented as his own belief such an entirely subjective, psychological, and pathetically feeble view of the resurrection that I had to take care not to drive straight off the M4. As I couldn’t take my reaction out on the car, I decided to relieve my frustration by preaching to you about it this morning!
This former prominent figure in the Anglican Church described his belief as follows (and I have listened to the broadcast again since to check).
Jesus died on the cross and was buried in the tomb, and that was that. Jesus did not experience a resurrection in any objective sense. But it gradually dawned on the disciples that, just because the messenger was dead, it didn’t mean that his message was either dead or invalid. And so – out of an initial despair and disillusionment – they began to see that, out of the ashes of apparent defeat, there could be hope, new beginnings, seeds of change which are capable of producing far-reaching results. The resurrection enables a psychologically positive attitude which is capable of bringing victory out of apparent defeat.
As an example, he quoted Rosa Parks, the black American lady who (in sheer weariness) in December 1955, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, and from that tiny beginning sprang the civil rights movement in the United States.
Now I don’t quarrel with the idea that from very small actions, motivated by a psychological attitude which simply rebels against the norm, and refuses to lie down, can spring great good out of all proportion to its origins. One could think of many examples – although I fear that the reverse can also be true. Out of one evil idea, psychologically motivated, an enormous monster can come into being. Think of Hitler.
But as an explanation of the power of the resurrection, I find this explanation feeble to the point of embarrassment. Something momentous happened on the third day after the crucifixion – the first day of the week - that changed the world then and for ever.
I would like to slip in a book recommendation at this point. My own belief about what happened on that day was formed (and remains) from reading a book which was written many, many years ago, but which (I am delighted to discover from a
quick look at the Amazon website) is still in print and easily obtainable. It is called “Who Moved The Stone?” by Frank Morison.
To understand what happened on that momentous Easter Day, we have to consider briefly four ingredients. The empty tomb. The Nature of the Resurrection. The change in the disciples. The fact of the Christian Church..
1. The Empty Tomb. I believe it is irrefutable that the tomb in which Jesus was buried on Good Friday was discovered to be empty by dawn on Sunday. The empty tomb is a crucial witness that stands at the very heart of all four Gospels. It is simply impossible to believe that the disciples could have been so clearly convinced, or that the resurrection could have been publicly preached in Jerusalem, if anyone (by taking quite a short walk) could have pointed to a decomposing body. Christianity would have been stifled at birth if Caiaphas and his band could have produced the body even as Peter preached. If you watched “The Passion” on TV, imagine the triumphant look on Caiaphas’ face as the body was carried into Jerusalem even as Peter was preaching (as in Acts 2) that “God raised Jesus from the dead...because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him”. Moreover we are simply not entitled to ignore or dismiss the crucial eye-witness accounts of Easter Day on any grounds – certainly not just because the Gospels were written some years later, or that (as in all eye-witness accounts) they are not all the same. The tomb was empty; something unprecedented had happened; those who were eye-witnesses that day and in the days that followed, tell us that what they saw convinced them beyond doubt that Jesus had conquered death and was actually more ‘alive’ in every sense that matters, than He had been before Good Friday.
2. The Nature of the resurrection. Some of the Radio discussion turned on the question of Jesus coming back to life in a resuscitated form (as in the raising of Lazarus). But this would not have been sufficient to give birth to the Christian faith. Death would not have been defeated, merely postponed. Something happened in the tomb which transformed his physical body into a spiritual body suitable for life in the heavenly, spiritual realm. It was this transformation which the Jews believed would occur at the Last Day of Judgement, which is why (a few weeks ago) I referred to the future invading the present on the day of resurrection. The resurrection body of Jesus is the proto-type (so to speak) of ours. Manifestly the same person, recognisable, but no longer limited by the constraints of age, mortality, time and space. In 1 Corinthians 15: 35 – 44 Paul writes about the difference between the physical, mortal body and the spiritual body into which it will be transformed for the life to come.
He uses, for example, the transformation from a seed into a fully blossoming flower or fruit. What you plant in the ground is a seed that usually looks pretty dead and shrivelled. But from that seed there comes the most beautiful flower or mature fruit. There is both similarity and difference between seed and fruit. There is vital continuity. They are, in essence, one and the same. So it will be with our essential selves and personality. But there is also vast difference.
The tiny shrivelled seed has been transformed into something glorious. Paul writes: “So it is with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”
At some moment on that first Easter Day, that transformation happened to Jesus. He was without doubt the same Jesus. But his mortal, physical body was transformed into a new spiritual body which is immortal and independent of the constraints of the physical world. And if this is true for Jesus, it has huge implications for those who believe in him. We read in Hebrews 12 that He is the “Pioneer” – the one who has gone through death before us, opened up the way and made it safe, and now offers to lead us personally through to that same glorious spiritual realm. Where He has gone, we can safely follow.
With this in mind, all the resurrection appearances fall into place. Jesus is recognisable – manifestly the same person – but no longer constrained by any of the limitations of a mortal body in a space/time existence. And he appears holding out the most wonderful and astonishing promise for every one who believes in him.
3. The Change in the Disciples. I find Richard Holloway’s idea of a “dawning realisation on the part of the disciples that the message remained valid” feeble in the extreme. It was not a dawning realisation of a psychological truth, it was an explosion of joy at the appearance of the risen Jesus and their understanding that the same Jesus they had known and followed, had indeed conquered death and was triumphant over all the powers of sin and evil.
Try to imagine being one of the disciples in the upper room when Jesus walked in and said: “Peace be with you” as we read in today’s Gospel. Can you begin to feel the mixture of sheer amazement, bewilderment, followed by a flood of joy and overwhelming knowledge that Jesus was, indeed, everything he had promised – everything for which they had hoped? Despair and hopelessness became, over a period of time, culminating in the coming of the Holy Spirit, the powerful, deep-rooted conviction shown in Peter’s speech in Acts 2 (our Epistle) which was the foundation stone of the Christian Church.
Of course we don’t pass from the initial amazement at witnessing an event which had never happened before in the entire history of the world, to the settled conviction of Peter’s speech in a matter of minutes or days. Of course it took time for them to digest and understand the implications of what had happened. It was a continuously dawning realization of the meaning of the resurrection. But that process could never had reached the conclusion which is the Christian faith without the solid, objective foundation stone of the actual resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
4. The Fact of the Christian Church. A dawning realisation that, from small, critical beginnings, great victories can be achieved against the odds, could never have been enough to kick-start the Christian Church. Such a message and example have been taught and put into practice by innumerable prophets and teachers down the ages. It is very far from unique. It needed something far, far greater in every sense to kick-start a religion which turned the world upside down within an amazingly short period of time, and which has had such an enormous influence in shaping the world for 2000 years, and is as powerful today as the day it began. It needed an event in history which effectively changed the world for ever. And that event was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
So what does the resurrection mean for you and me today? Try once more to exercise your imagination. The risen Jesus promised to be with all who trust in him, and in the midst of those who gather for worship. The reality is that He walks into the midst of us now, as we gather for worship, and holds out his hand to everyone of us. Do we trust him enough to put out our own hand and grasp his by faith? Do we join with Thomas in saying now: “My lord and my God”?
If we do, it will change our lives even as it changed the lives of those first disciples with whom we are inseparately linked. We, too, will feel the breath of Jesus, and receive the Spirit. We, too, will know the love and power that changes our lives for ever. We, too, will go out in the power of the Spirit, to live and work to his glory. And the resurrection of Jesus will be as real and powerful in our lives as it was at that first Easter.
“These things are written” says John “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that – by believing – you may have life in his name.” For those who trust personally in the risen Lord we experience the life Christ promised – real life – today and for eternity.
Discussion Starters:
1 Corinthians 15:17 - 19 . Paul writes: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” Do you agree?
2. What does the resurrection of Jesus from the dead mean in your life?
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