|
Sermon preached
at
The American
College Chapel
On April 8,
2007
THE RESURRECTION AND THE POWER OF FAITH
As Christians we all believe
in the resurrection of Jesus or at least we are supposed to believe in it. But,
to many of us, I think, the resurrection belief is an enigma, a puzzling thing.
We claim to believe it. We want to believe in it. We need the belief in
resurrection. We want it because it provides us the hope with which we can live
a life good enough to accept the challenges that raw life throws at us. The problem
is how to have a meaningful, relevant understanding of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
Every individual sitting
here, I assume, has chosen to be identified as a Christian, though what is
being a Christian may differ from person to person. Every one who identifies
himself as a Christian has to necessarily accept the Bible as his scripture and
also accept the church and its doctrines. Without the Bible and the Church you
and I cannot profess to be a Christian.
Now, the resurrection belief
is Biblical and also a doctrine of the Church. Belief in the resurrection of
Christ is not an option for a Christian. You cannot discard it. Either you
accept it or suspend your decision to believe in it. That is why I again
assume, that many people experience mixed feelings about the Easter event.
The celebration of Easter as
a festival does not seem to help us out. Our reasoning does not take us any
where. Logic does not help us either.
Within a particular mind-set everything can be logical. If you have ten
arguments to prove resurrection to be a fact, you can also generate ten other arguments
to disprove it. If my colleague starts arguing with me to prove that
resurrection is not a fact, I’d rather not try to convince him and prove that
Jesus rose from the dead on Easter day.
I now share with you the
light that God has given me to understand the Easter event.
One thing I am very sure.
That is, in the words of George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury: Belief in
the resurrection is not an appendage to the Christian faith. It is the
Christian faith.
In this sentence what I
understand by the terms ‘resurrection’
and ‘Christian faith’ are crucial.
For
me resurrection of Christ was not resuscitation. It
was not a dead body revived back to life.
It is
important to note that while there are other individuals in the Bible who
"came back to life," so to speak, there is a fundamental difference
between their experiences and that of Jesus. With the exception of Enoch and
Elijah (who were translated), the rest of those people died again. In
contrast, Jesus was raised from the dead,
never to die again. The New
Testament makes a clear distinction between Jesus' pre-resurrection body and
his post-resurrection body. Jesus' pre-resurrection body was nature’s body:
fully human and therefore completely mortal. However, after the resurrection,
his body was transformed and made immortal.
To Paul,
Jesus was not restored to life in his original body in order to walk around and
talk to his followers. Rather, Jesus was raised from death into the presence of
God in a spiritual body. As he writes in I Corinthians 15:50 Paul
believed: "...flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor
does the perishable inherit the imperishable."
Paul
regarded the resurrection to be an act of God in which Jesus was a passive
recipient of God's power. Paul did not mention the empty tomb, the visit by a
woman or women, the stone, the angel or men at the tomb, and the reunion of
Jesus with his followers in his resuscitated body. Rather, he believed that
Jesus was taken up into heaven in a spirit body. In this Paul differs from the
Gospel writers.
Paul
seems to say us that we are Christians by faith and not by sight. It is not the status of Jesus’ physical
remains – that defines and sustains Christian communities.
Let us not be ambivalent, confused and be
unbelievers.
One
Rev. Steve Huber of St. Columbia's Episcopal Church says,”I think what we want to do is try and rise above that and ask, 'What
is the metaphoric truth of Easter?' The real power of Easter is the
transformation that, as Christians, we believe continues to happen in people's
lives....If Easter is about proving the veracity of some historical event that
happened 2,000 years ago, that misses the point."
"...the power of resurrection resided with God. God was the
initiator...Jesus was the recipient, the one acted upon. Paul never used
anything but the passive verb to discuss the Easter event and he used that form
37 times. For Paul, Jesus was raised by God. Jesus did not rise."
New Testament statements on resurrection appearances and ascension express the Christian belief
that the crucified Yeshua is of God and is with God.
Paul’s statements on the resurrection and ascension express faith
–interpretations. Paul’s interpretations are a reading of primitive history
through theology.
I suggest
that you read First Corinthians chapter 15, the whole chapter.
Most of us Christians in fact do blur first century theology with
first century history.
Faith is
revelation, not sight or reason. The New Testament teaches that faith is
not sight and seeing is not believing.
Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews in chapter 11 verse 1 says: Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is salvific whereas reason is not. But we cannot afford to be irrational
or illogical in our beliefs. The Christian faith is a logical mind-set that
combines reason and belief, well balanced to enable us to live a life of love
and peace in a world that challenges our efforts towards love and peace.
The faith of the New Testament is the faith in the living Christ for
whom the cross was not the last word and the tomb was not the last
resting place. Our faith has to be faith in Jesus crucified, dead, buried
and raised to life on the third day by God. God brings about resurrection.
The story of resurrection is God speaking to us about His plan for the
world that is corrupt. It is God telling
us that inspite of the existence of evil, good will triumph. The story of
resurrection is the story of our hope in justice when faced with injustice;
it is the story of our faith in life through death. Resurrection
is God glorifying us when we submit ourselves to suffer for righteousness sake.
Jesus glorified God with his death on the cross and God glorified him by
raising him from the dead.
Without faith in resurrection human beings are just helpless victims of
fate and the powerless can do nothing but resign themselves to oppression at
the hands of the powerful. Human history consists of many such sad stories,
stories of countless men, women and children fallen victims to the cruel powers
of this world. But is this the whole story? Does history tell only of
the victory of the powerful over the powerless? Does it leave only the records
of the evils and terrors committed by the evil forces of this world? Surely
not. Easter is the way God tells us that finally the unjust will be
defeated and the just vindicated. Easter is the way God tells us that evil will
finally be vanquished and the good redeemed. Death and everything
that leads to it is the greatest evil that we and all living creatures on
earth face. God through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
provides us with faith in His goodness inspite of the presence of evil in the
world. The spirit of God enables us to dream of hope in the midst of despair.
The Spirit compels us to dream of life when we are faced with the menace of
death.
Easter is a dream that the spirit inspires us to dream. Easter is our
dream which is a sign that we are still human beings capable of dreaming about
a world of justice and love, peace and freedom. For us human beings our history
must be a history of Easter experiences. It consists of stories of human
beings, as individuals and as communities brought back to life from death again
and again in anticipation of fulfillment in the life and victory of God.
Also
resurrection faith does not come at the end of our life’s journey. The
resurrection faith starts even in the book of Genesis when God said that man
shall bruise the head of the serpent. Resurrection faith was predicted even
when the three kings visited the child Jesus. One of the kings presented Jesus
with Gold. Gold stands for royalty and victory. The victory of Jesus was
proclaimed even at the time of his birth. The bearing of the Cross foretells
the wearing of the crown. This is what the Sermon on the Mount also tells us. “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be
comforted”
We may still wake up from an Easter dream with a tear in our eye – but
not a tear of despair but of hope.
It is a tear that under the power of the spirit of the risen Jesus,
greets the dawn of Easter after the night of each of our Good Fridays. That
tear in our eye is the sign of life and eternity. That is Easter.
* * * * *
Old Testament – Isaiah 65 : 17 – 25
New Testament – I Corinthians 15 : 33 – 36 and from 45 – 50.
1. 182 – Christ the Lord is Risen Today
2. 181 – Alleluia! The Strife is o’er
3. 192 – The Day of Resurrection
4. 193 – Thine is the Glory