coventry vineyard

An Empty Message?

Does it really matter what happened to Jesus? Does it matter if Jesus' body was resurrected from the dead?

Here is how Paul argues his point in 1 Cor 15:12-19
12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

Six points:

1. Many people agree that Jesus was a good moral teacher. But to say any more than that and you’re going to start offending people. The resurrection declares Jesus to be unique. The resurrection of Jesus Christ distinguishes Jesus and distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. Jesus is different than every other religious founder because of his resurrection. The bones of every significant religious leader who ever lived are still buried in the ground. Christianity is about entering a relationship with a person who was dead and who is currently bodily alive because he is resurrected from the dead and his name is Jesus Christ.

2. If Jesus did not rise from the dead than our message. The message of the Kingdom of God and ultimately all of the teaching of Jesus is futile.

3. If you say that Jesus was not raised from the dead, then you are forced to say that the apostles, and all the writers of the New Testament, were liars when they claimed that Christ was resurrected. The apostles ran around the Roman Empire claiming to be eyewitnesses. They said they saw Jesus die, with their own eyes. And then they said they saw with their own eyes, Jesus, having been raised from the dead, in a glorious, transformed, incorruptible body.

4. All of us have done things which we know have hurt others. Far too often we hurt others knowingly, we’ve said things, or done things which have harmed others. Every one of us here can probably think of something we’ve done and feel guilty about it. The only people who don't struggle with guilt are the criminally insane - psychopaths and sociopaths. Normal people all feel guilt about things we have done wrong. That is why we defend ourselves so vigorously. That's why we feel the need to make excuses for our behaviour. How do you deal with your guilt? What do you do with it? The Bible says that the person we have ultimately sinned against is God. That when we de-humanise another human by our treatment of them, we insult the one in whose image they have been made. The Bible says we can take our sins to the cross - that Jesus' death on the cross fully pays for our sins. The Bible says that the way we know that Jesus' death on the cross really did take care of our sins is the resurrection. The resurrection is proof that Jesus did not die for nothing.

5. The philosopher, Bertrand Russell, says that death is omnipotent. Death has the final say. Taking from us our loved ones and ourselves, cutting the string, turning us all back into various bits of matter that fertilizes the ground. If Christ is not risen, that's all there is. If there is no resurrection then the best we can hope for is either; complete anhialation which in the words of Dylan Thomas causes us to shout to those dying, “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage, against the dying of the light”. Or reincarnation, hoping that we can have another go and do things better next time to eventually be assimilated into some mighty consciousness.
What do you say in the face of death? Our answer, without the resurrection has to be, stay alive as long as possible. Eat right, stay fit, have surgery cheat death. But no scientific breakthrough can save us from the inevitable. You and I will die.

6. What do you say to those who have sacrificed so much for Jesus ?
If Jesus isn’t raised, then all the people who have given up good jobs to work amongst the poorest of the poor are imbeciles. If Jesus isn’t raised from the dead, then the people we should admire are the manipulators and those who can step on others and get ahead and look out for Number One. If Jesus isn’t raised, then if you can get away with it in this world, go for it.
Exploit others, there is no ultimate justice. As Tom Wright puts it:
In a world of systematic injustice, bullying violence, arrogance and oppression, the thought that there might be a coming day when the wicked are firmly put in their place and the poor and the weak are given their due is the best news there can be.