Higher Than the Angels

Texts:   Hebrews 2:5-18; Matthew 22:15-33
 

IS THE RESURRECTION OF THE dead and the life of the world to come essential to Christianity?  Would following Christ be any less worthwhile if we had no hope of personally rising again at all?

    The Scripture teaches us absolutely, yes, without this hope, our faith would have no worth at all.  As St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:19, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."  And in verse 32 of that same chapter he says, "If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'" Isaiah, St. Peter, St. John, St. Jude, and many more of the inspired writers of God's word also agree that we are meant for a life in God that does not end with our last breath, but continues in the power of the risen Christ forever more. 

    In the same way, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews  wants us to realize that Jesus Christ in His own body made the ultimate, perfect sacrifice in order that we might be raised with Him and live forever in the very presence of God.  Jesus' whole purpose on this earth was to live and die so He could destroy death for us, His brothers and sisters, and bring all of us together with Him into the glory of the kingdom of heaven.

     The Sadducees knew that the resurrection of the dead was key to our Lord's teaching, though they didn't believe in it at all.  If they could undermine Jesus' doctrine of bodily resurrection, they could demolish Him and His entire ministry.  St. Matthew records the encounter between Jesus and the Sadducees in chapter 22 of his gospel.

    You'll remember that Jesus is teaching in the Temple the day after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem And that the Sadducees weren't the first to come at Him that day with what they thought were sure-fire "gotcha" questions.  The Pharisees and the Herodians had failed, but the Sadducees thought they could do better.  Again, this Jewish sect didn't believe in life after death.  They denied the existence of angels and demons.  They maintained that only the five books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy:; that is, the Torah, were authoritative for God's people Israel.  They claimed to be more faithful to the exact words of Moses than the Pharisees were with their oral law.

    So that same day at the Temple, Matthew tells us, the Sadducees came to Jesus to challenge Him on the resurrection of the dead.  Their question was designed to make the doctrine-- and Jesus-- look so ridiculous and even so immoral as to blow Him and it away like chaff in the wind.  The question is based on the Mosaic law about levirate marriage.

    Briefly, levirate marriage (from the Latin word levir, meaning "husband's brother) was instituted by God to make sure that no Hebrew line would die out or lose their inheritance in the Promised Land.  Remember, under the old covenant given at Sinai, the promises of God were centered around possession of the land.  Here's how the command reads in Deuteronomy 25:5-6:

    If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

    Usually, marrying your brother's widow could count as incest, but in this case, the need to maintain the family line took priority in the sight of God.

    Given all this, the Sadducees raised a hypothetical question concerning a whole family of seven brothers, none of whom can manage to beget children.  All of them in turn try to do their levirate duty towards one wife and widow, and all die childless.  Hey, Jesus, what about that?  "At the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"

    They think they've got Him.  Jesus will have to deny the law of levirate marriage as given by God to Moses.  Or He'll have to overturn the principle that God makes marriages, as written in Genesis.  Or He'll condemn Himself by approving a vile incestuous arrangement where one woman has relations forever with seven husbands at once.

    Jesus confounds this immediately:  "You are in error, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God!"

    Where were the Sadducees so wrong?  They were assuming that people who believed in life after death were looking forward to a mere continuation of this earthly existence, but without the disease, deprivations, and troubles.  The Sadducees claimed to be ever so exact and careful about the word of God as recorded by Moses, but they really didn't understand it at all.  If they'd really known the Scriptures, they would have seen God's wondrous power recorded there and recognised His ability to bless and favor His chosen people in ways they could never have imagined ahead of time.  They would even have discovered hints that man made in the image of God does not end when his body is consigned to the dust.

    No, responds Jesus, the life of the world to come will be wonderful, new, and different.  "At the resurrection," He says, "people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven."  Moreover, the same Torah that the Sadducees accept and claim to defend itself testifies that God's saints live on after physical death.  Had they not read what God said to them in Exodus 3:6?  The Lord testified to Moses at the burning bush, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."  Not, "I was," but "I am now and ever shall be their God," How?  Because by God's power His saints yet live.  So, declares our Lord Jesus, "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living!"

    Isn't it satisfying to see Jesus defeat His enemies?  May it satisfy us even more to hear Him uphold our hope for eternal life and blessing with Him.  When Jesus extinguished the argument of the Sadducees, He did it for us, and for all who believe in His name.  As Hebrews tells us, Christ was born and died to bring many sons to glory; that is, to resurrection life.  He claims you and me and all who believe as His brothers and sisters, and makes us holy like Himself.  We will be raised again in perfectly renewed bodies like His own, and then He will proudly present us to His Father and ours:   "‘Here am I,'" He will say, "‘and the children God has given me.'"

    Hebrews 2:14 says that by His death on the cross Jesus destroyed our fear of death.  Not as if to say, "Don't worry, death's nothing to be afraid of, it's only like a dreamless sleep." Rather, He gives us a firm and certain hope of new life with Him in glory.  How?  By Jesus' sacrifice of Himself, wherein He made perfect atonement for the sins of God's people.  Sin handed us over to the devil.  Sin brought upon us the wrath of God and condemned us to die.  But like a faithful high priest Jesus has ministered the sacrifice of His own body to God in our behalf, that our sins might be taken away and we might share in His life that nothing can destroy.

    The Sadducees erred with their limited, distorted view of what resurrection life would be.  But frequently, sincere Christians also carry around a mistaken view of the life of the world to come.  Again, in Matthew 22:30 Jesus told the Sadducees, "At the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven."  And from this many people mistakenly conclude that human beings are transformed into angels when they die.

    Should a preacher say anything against this?  After all, if it gives someone comfort to believe that his or her deceased loved one is an angel in heaven, why disturb it?

    But I must disturb that belief, because God's promises to us in the resurrection of the dead are so much greater, so much more marvellous, so much more comforting, that I would fail both God and you if I didn't tell you about them, if I caused you to miss out on the peace the Lord has for you, or robbed Him of the praise He is due.

    When Jesus says the resurrected saints will be like the angels in heaven, He is telling us that in the world to come, there will be no need of marriage.  The joy and communion happy married couples experience is only a foretaste of the holy union of spirit that all of us will know with God and one another when our bodies are raised and made new.  This is the joy the angels know now, and we will know then.

    But the writer to the Hebrews says even more about human beings and angels.  In 2:5 he reminds us that it wasn't to angels that God subjected the world to come.  No, it was to Man, to the Man Jesus and to all the human beings who like you and me are included in Him.  In verses 6 through 8 he quotes Psalm 8, which we used as our Call to Worship.  This psalm reminds us that at creation we were made a little lower than the angels-- which is to say we were different from angels, but still ranked very high in God's estimation indeed.  Everything was put under the feet of our first parents-- but as we know, they sinned.  So our Lord came from heaven and was born as the Son of Man.  He who was the King of angels was found in human flesh and became a little lower than they.  And now through His obedience unto death He is highly exalted, higher than all angels, archangels, principalities, and powers, crowned with honor and glory.

  Jesus has regained for mankind the rank we had at the beginning, and brought us higher still.  Jesus our Lord did not become an angel when He rose again, and neither shall we.  No, we become something better: glorified and honored human beings, whom Jesus the Son of God is not ashamed to call brothers and sisters, members of His holy family.

    And see what it says in verse 16 of this chapter: "For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants."  Remember, all who receive the promise of God in faith are children of Abraham, and by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that includes us.  Again, "It is not angels [Jesus] helps." Knowing that, is there anyone who would still wish to become an angel when they die?  Do they not want to be helped by Jesus who died for them?  Do they not want to live forever in a renewed and glorified human body like His own?  The blood of Christ was never intended for the fallen angels, the demons, and them it cannot save.  The holy angels are without sin, and don't need a Savior.  But we are frail and fallen human beings, born in sin and doomed to die.  We do need His sacrifice and for us-- for you!-- He shed His blood that you might be raised to new and eternal human life in Him. 

    Claim your humanity!  Wear it proudly, for your risen Lord sits in heaven forever as the glorified Son of Man, and you are His flesh and blood, a member of His own family.  Honor the holy angels and accept with thankfulness their ministry to you, but do not worship them or desire to take their place.  No, the place you have in Christ is so much better, so much higher, so much closer to the heart of God.  For you are His redeemed, born again to give Him eternal praise and glory, and in the resurrection His power will create for you a new life more wonderful, blessed, and truly human than anything we can think, conceive, or imagine.

    To Christ who sits on the throne be all honor, glory and majesty, with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and forever.  Amen.

Christ's Resurrection and You: A Building Not Made with Hands

Texts:  2 Corinthians 4:13 - 5:10; Luke 24:36-49

    ON THE WHOLE, I'M GLAD the rapture of the saints didn't happen last night at 6:00 PM.  There's  so much more on this earth I want to see and do and accomplish.  But if Harold Camping had been right, and even now we were standing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, I would possess something I so grievously lack right now.  And that's a full sense and knowledge of the splendour, the goodness, the graciousness, the beauty, the holiness, the indescribable greatness of what my great God and Saviour did for me when He died on the cross and rose again for my sake.

    To know Jesus Christ and the life-giving power of His resurrection is the most marvellous, desirable thing you and I can ever experience.  There is no end to the benefits we derive from Him!  We've seen these past weeks how Jesus' resurrection enabled us to be adopted as children of God.  How by it we are brought into His new covenant and brought into the nurture of our mother, the Church.  How Jesus rose again to strip off our old filthy sinful natures and clothe us instead in our new selves, which is the shining glorious garment of His righteousness and love.   How amazing is Jesus Christ our Lord, who was crucified for our sins and rose that we might live His life forever!  How glorious and splendid are all His gifts to us!  Just thinking about them, we should be in a continual state of rapture all day long!

    But you know how it is, and so do I.  The good things of this world, and its troubles as well, hang like a curtain between us and the jaw-dropping vision of Christ and His resurrection benefits.  It's not that we don't believe that Jesus rose again, it's just that other stuff is so present and so pressing, His resurrection and what it means to us isn't something that we consciously dwell on day after day.  It's for Easter Sunday, and maybe a week or two thereafter.  Good to know about, but not exactly relevant to what we're dealing with now.

    At least, that's how it seems.  It seems that way too with our own resurrection, the one St. Paul so eloquently writes about in 1 Corinthians 15.  That's for the future, sure, for the day when Jesus really comes back.  But that doesn't seem to be happening real soon. And in the meantime, I'll wager that none of us goes around with a secret smile and a little skip in our step because we, too, someday will have a glorious immortal body like the one Jesus Himself rose in.  I don't say this is the way we should be; it's just a fact of our human nature that it's woefully easy for us to get distracted from heavenly things and forget what we have and Whose we are.  It's especially easy when the distractions have to do with poor health, or poverty, or advancing old age, or the approach of death, for ourselves or those we love.  Who can think of their bodily resurrection when we have so much on our minds?

    But in the fourth and fifth chapters of his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul-- speaking by the Holy Spirit-- reveals that those very everyday difficulties and distractions should be signposts and reminders that point us ever and again back to our blessed hope of personal resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Not only that,  but our very weakness serves to show the great power of God in Christ.  As Paul says earlier in chapter 4, we carry the magnificent good news of Christ died and risen around in clay jars, "to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."  And so, as our Epistle reading today begins, "‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.'" This is a quotation from Psalm 116:10, where the psalmist has been lamenting his neediness, his trouble, his nearness to death, and what he speaks of in this quoted verse is of his great affliction.   He brings his distress to God in faith that God is One who hears and heals and restores.  And so Paul evokes that same spirit of faith in us, but we have an even greater reason to hope in God than the psalmist did.  For we know that He who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and He'll present all of us together to Himself, in His very presence.

    This is our resurrection hope!  This is the gospel grace that even today is reaching more and more people, that thanksgiving may overflow to the glory of God!

    We hold this hope in light of-- perhaps I should say, in contrast to-- the very unhopeful situations we find ourselves in day after day.  Because we trust in the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, because we trust that He will also raise us with Him, we do not lose heart.

    And it can be so easy in this world to lose heart.  We don't have to be suffering persecution for our faith; ordinary ageing and illness will do it.  We look in the mirror and see the wrinkles and we think, "Wait a minute, when did that happen?  I don't feel that old!"  Or worse, we gaze upon the pale form of a sick loved one languishing full of tubes in a hospital bed, and we know how true it is that our outer nature, our present physical bodies, are indeed wasting away.  But the resurrection life of Christ is even now working its revival in you and me, if indeed we are trusting in the One who raised Jesus Christ from the dead and who will also raise us.  Even now, He is renewing our inner nature, the new self in Christ, day by day.

    We might want to say to Paul, "Hey, you call what I'm going through a ‘light momentary affliction.'  What do you know about the cancer I'm suffering?  Paul, how can you minimize my parent's congestive heart failure?  Paul, people are calling me a hatemongering bigot for standing up for traditional gospel truth.  How can you call that kind of affliction ‘slight'?"

    Oops, scratch that one.  Paul knew a lot about being afflicted for the sake of Christ.  In fact, go back to verses 8-12 of chapter 4 of 2 Corinthians, or skip over to chapters 11 and 12, and you'll see that if any one had sufferings and afflictions, if anyone in Church history knew what it was like to have his outer nature wasted away, it was the Apostle Paul.  But he kept his eyes on the resurrection we're all promised in Christ Jesus.  And therefore he could say that if our present bodily troubles were put in a scale with the glory that will come to us in the resurrection, the glory that's coming to us will far outweigh them all.

    In fact, our present troubles go to contribute to the glory that is to be.  How can this happen?  Disease and trial and suffering aren't virtuous in themselves.  But as we set them in contrast to the resurrection that is to come; especially, as others see our resurrection hope in contrast to what we're going through here on this earth, we glorify our risen Lord, who has promised to share His glory with us.  So, as Paul says, our focus is no longer on how we see things to be in this troubled world; rather, we fix our eyes on what is unseen and eternal. 

    That is, what is unseen for now.  The unbelieving world may say, "Yes, you're looking at what's unseen, all right, because there's nothing there."  We reply, "No, there is something there, beyond the curtain of this failing earthly life.  There is Someone there, who walked this earth and lived and died and rose again for me, and one day I will see Him face to face and know that He is realer and solider and more weighty than anything that can be looked upon in this temporary world."

    Now, I need you to bear with me for a moment, because I'm going to inject something personal, and I don't want it to take away from the glory that belongs to the Scripture or to Jesus Christ, the Lord of Scripture.  It's just that I find it ironic-- or maybe appropriate-- that this passage speaks of looking and seeing.  You know about my eyesight, how I often have to wear two pairs of cheaters to read.  That's annoying, but I manage.  But in the past couple of days I've noticed some symptoms that may have serious implications for my eyesight, that may even require surgery.  I tell you this by way of confession, to admit that when I found this out I didn't feel too full of thanksgiving.  It can be really hard to keep your focus on things eternal when your imagination is telling you you might not be able to see things earthly for much longer.

    It's been said that the preacher can't preach to him or herself.  Maybe not, but the Apostle can preach to the preacher, and Paul has preached to me that whatever happens when I go in to see the eye doctor, the renewal of Jesus Christ is still taking place in me day by day, whether I feel like it or not.  And age-related things like this only go to remind us that this body we live in is like a tent.  Paul was thinking of the dwelling tents of the wandering Bedouins of the desert; we might think of a tent on a camping trip.  Either way, there comes a time when those things get wet and waterlogged and worn and full of holes.  There is no way they can be compared with our own solid house at home.  In the same way, our present bodies are wearing out.  But by the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, God Himself has prepared for us an eternal house in heaven, a building not made by human hands.  Of course it's not made by human hands!  For our eternal home, our resurrection bodies, are established on the foundation of Christ's resurrection itself, and no mortal had anything to do with that.

    The Scripture says that now we groan, longing to be clothed with our permanent heavenly dwelling.  We have to understand that that is truly our longing.  Some people, even Christians, think the goal is to get rid of this earthly tent, our physical bodies, and just fly away as a spirit, naked and free.  That may be great Greek philosophy, but it is not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  No, we do not want to be found naked before God.  We must not stand before Him as bare unclothed spirits.  In fact, we can not.  We must be clothed with the heavenly dwelling that God has prepared for us for us, in order for us to know the eternal life that swallows up our mortality.

    Because, brothers and sisters, that is why God made you-- so you might be clothed, surrounded, protected, and made at home in the resurrection body He has prepared for you.  No matter what happens to you in this life, that new and heavenly body will be yours; you can believe that because God has given you the Holy Spirit as a guarantee on the purchase.  He witnesses to our hearts through the Word that Jesus Christ truly did die for us, that His resurrection was for us, and that we can take Him at His word when He promises that where He is, we will be also.

    And so, Paul says, things are actually switched around for us.  Our earthly natures say, "Give me as much time here on earth in this body as possible.  I'm in no hurry to go!"  But the Spirit keeps us looking towards what we don't yet see, and He makes us eager to see it.  He makes us long to move out of the temporary home of this tent and move permanently into our forever home with the Lord.  The Spirit of God makes us confident that we shall indeed some day be forever at home with the Lord, clothed in the glorious bodies He has prepared for us.

    Does this confidence give us the right to be so heavenly-minded we're no earthly good?  Not at all.  Here on this present earth or later on in eternity, our aim and pleasure should be to please Him who did not please Himself, but gave Himself up to save us all.

    Does our future hope lead us to conclude that this present life is meaningless, just a waiting room for heaven, as it were?  No, because we do have our future hope, we strive so that when we appear before the judgement seat of Christ, the things we have done in this present body will please Him and earn us His favor and reward.

    Jesus Christ is risen; He is risen indeed.  Not as a ghost, not as a disembodied spirit, but as a gloried Man of touchable flesh and bone.  And we will be like Him, on that day when He truly returns and gathers His saints to rejoice with Him around His throne. 

    That day is coming.  Someday we will be there, and we will at last feel the glorious weight of the splendor and majesty of our Lord Jesus and His finished work for us.  Whether the time is long or short, do not lose heart.  Make it your goal to please Him. And whatever you may be going through now, whatever now causes you to groan with longing or grief, keep your eyes focussed on Jesus Christ, the one who was dead, and see, He lives again.   He is your resurrection, He is your life, and in Him you will live and find shelter forever more.

Our Real Tangible Spiritual Resurrection Bodies

Texts: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 & 35-49; Luke 24:33-49

AS I MENTIONED DURING the Joys and Concerns, I'm being treated for Stage 1C ovarian cancer. So a week or two ago I was sitting on a neighbor's front porch with her and her sister-in-law who was visiting from Denver. My neighbor had told her relative that I was undergoing chemotherapy, and she was very curious about the whole thing. At one point she asked, "Are you afraid to die?" I told her my surgeon says it's very probable I'm cured already, and we're just doing the chemo just in case. Still, if the cancer comes back anyway, I just have to remember how wonderfully much Jesus loves me and what He's done for me. "I believe in the resurrection of the body," I said. "You mean the resurrection of the spirit," said my neighbor. "No," I replied, "the resurrection of the body. Just like Jesus rose again with a real, glorified human body, we'll be like Him and have the same." My neighbor wasn't so sure she liked that idea. Don't our bodies just give us trouble? Who'd want to be stuck with one for all eternity?

Well, it's common for us humans not to be too excited about the idea of the bodily resurrection of the dead. Once after one of my seminary classmates had guest preached on the subject, a man of that church, one of their board members, came up to me and said, "I always enjoy it so much when you Wycliffe people come and preach to us. You always bring such novel doctrine!" "‘Novel'?" I asked him. "How's that?" "Well," he said, "I've always been taught that Jesus' resurrection body was just a spiritual one." "But," I said, "what about when He tells His disciples to feel Him to prove He still has solid flesh and bone?" "Oh," said the man, "Jesus just made it seem like He had a physical body so He wouldn't upset the disciples. He really was only a ghost!"

The doctrine of the bodily resurrection from the dead is a basic teaching of our Christian faith, but obviously many people have trouble accepting it. Even evangelical Christians can't always get their hearts around it: How many times at a funeral have you heard someone say their departed loved one is now an angel in heaven? But angels have nothing to do with resurrection. As it says in the book of Hebrews, angels are ministering spirits and Christ's promise of new life from the dead is not for them.

But it is for us, and I hope to show you how our bodily resurrection in Jesus Christ is not only true, but also is our hope and comfort and the very assurance of the everlasting love of God.

It all flows from Jesus and what He's done for us. Jesus' disciples weren't expecting Him to rise from the dead. Time and again He'd told them He'd be arrested and put to death and then rise on the third day, but their minds were kept from understanding it. So on the evening of that first Easter Sunday, when Jesus stood among them in the upper room, they were startled and frightened. Luke tells us they'd thought they were seeing a ghost! This was even after the two disciples who'd encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus had come back to Jerusalem and reported what had happened! Now, the disciples were good Jews. They expected there to be some sort of bodily resurrection way off in the future, at the end of the age. But the idea that someone they knew and loved could be standing live and in the flesh before them after being so very dead three days before was simply unthinkable.

Nevertheless, it was true! "Why are you troubled," Jesus said to them, "and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."

Jesus was solid, and real! No way was He just a ghost or a spirit! No way was He fooling the disciples into thinking He had a resurrection body when He did not! And as they were still standing there in unbelief and amazement, Jesus asked them for some broiled fish and ate it in their presence!

Why did He go to such lengths to prove that He was truly, really, bodily risen? Why does it matter that Jesus' resurrection was truly a rising again, in the same body He died in, and not a mere apparition?

Because, as He told the disciples, this victory over death was what the whole of the Scriptures, all of God's grand and glorious plan, had all been leading up to! "This is what is written," Jesus reminded them (in verse 45), "The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations." Without the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is no forgiveness of sins! Without Jesus truly risen from the dead, death still would have its hold over Him. Without Jesus' rising again in the same body that went to the cross, death would still have its hold over us! If Christ is not truly risen, our sins are not atoned for, His life was in vain, and we are still under the wrath of God and headed straight to hell.

But as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." Jesus is the prototype, the forerunner of all who sleep in death. His bodily resurrection proves that His sacrifice on the cross was sufficient, fully-acceptable to God to atone for our sins. Had Jesus not actually risen, everyone would have known that He had died for His own errors and crimes. But He was and is the Sinless One who had life-in-Himself, as it says in the Gospel according to St. John. He rose in all the triumph of that life and He gives it to all who believe in Him. Some people will tell you that the Christian message is about being nice to other people. Brothers and sisters, every religious system in the world has taught we should be nice to other people, they just differ in which people we're supposed to be nice to! No, the basic message of Christianity, the main point of the Gospel, is that Jesus Christ is died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was raised bodily on the third day, and that through faith in Him we have forgiveness of sins and life forever. Not just some of your sins, but all of them! Peace with God and glorious joy with Him, now and always!

You may be saying, "I certainly believe that!" But some of the members of the 1st century Corinthian church were rejecting the bodily resurrection outright. Most of them were originally Gentiles, and they'd grown up with the Greek notion that the body and its flesh was at best just a vehicle, a donkey, you might say, for the mind and the spirit. At worst the body was full of corruption and evil, and no better way to see that was in a rotting corpse. Why would anyone want to come back in that? Don't we all want to get free?

This is where we see the providence and wisdom of God in choosing the Jews as His Messianic people. The Hebrew understanding was that each person was a unity of body, mind, and spirit, and to be a full, living human you had to have all three, and this is what God affirms in raising His Son from the dead. You get so-called theologians who claim that Jesus was "risen" in the disciples' hearts and imaginations and that was enough. No, that is not enough, not if Jesus was truly to defeat death, His enemy and ours. Any so-called rising of the God-Man that left His flesh to decay would have been no victory over death at all. Paul wants us to understand that in Christ there is life and victory beyond the grave, life and victory for the whole man and the whole woman. We have hope in Christ for this life and for the next.

And so faithful Christian preaching is not useless and we are not lying about God and what He has done. Your faith in Christ means something! It has a purpose, and its purpose is to unite you with your Lord who truly came back from the grave in a glorious, renewed body. Its goes to assure you that you and every Christian loved one you have lost will truly stand glorified and solid in their renewed flesh and bone, praising and serving God in the new heaven and the new earth. Even though at the brink of the grave, we mourn, but we are not to be pitied, for our hope is good for more than this life: it extends to all eternity.

Nevertheless, some hold to the conviction that this life is all there is. They were the type in Corinth who were questioning, "How are the dead raised. With what kind of body will they come?"

You can see by Paul's reaction that they weren't earnestly seeking knowledge, because his first word in verse 36 is not "How foolish!" but rather, "Fool!" Which is what you called someone only when you were sure they were a double-dyed, deliberately-blind moral trifler. Open your eyes, he says! The very course of nature shows us that it's perfectly possible for the final, mature form of a body to be different and more complex than its initial form. We see that, don't we? Think of the tomato seeds you may've planted in your garden this spring. Didn't look anything like the luscious tomatoes I hope you're eating now, did they? Not only is that tomato plant different from the seed you planted, but you don't get that plant and that fruit unless you bury that seed in the dirt and allow it to break down. In short, to die. Every day in every garden, in every farmer's field new life comes from death; isn't God, who is the ultimate Gardener, able to bring new life from our mortal bodies?

And then, there are all sorts of types of bodies in this world: human, animal, fish, bird, and on and on. We don't say, "Well, humans can't breathe in water, so I don't believe in a creature that can." No, we know that fish exist. Their makeup is different, and so they can do things humans cannot. In the same way, our resurrection bodies will be able to do things our mortal bodies cannot. The Bible does not go into a lot of detail, but from the example of Jesus, we can see that we will have power over nature so that we can enjoy it when we want to-- as in Jesus eating the broiled fish-- but we won't be hampered or hindered by it: Think of Him being able simply to appear in the upper room despite the locked door.

And for those who think the resurrection body will just be these same weak ones resuscitated, St. Paul reminds us that different bodies have different kinds of splendor. Our bodies now do have a certain kind of splendor, but it will be nothing compared to what we shall be like when we are raised from the death and are made like our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For what was sown, or buried, is perishable. Obviously-- for the person died. But the renewed flesh Jesus gives can never die again. Dead flesh is something dishonorable, to be gotten out of sight as soon as possible. But our renewed flesh will be clothed in honor when we're raised at the last day, for we will share in the glory that is Christ's. The body that dies is weak and powerless; it is raised in the power of the everliving God. It is buried a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

But many people read this word "spiritual" and say "See! Our bodies in heaven won't be physical! We'll be like the angels, who are all spirits!" But that's making the wrong contrast. The comparison isn't between "physical" and "spiritual" as regards the composition of our resurrection bodies; no, it's between "natural" and "spiritual," referring to how each kind of body is made alive. Look at it this way: our bodies here on earth have a lot in common with those of other animals. All animals-- humans, dogs, cats, cows, whatever, have a soul or what our ancestors called "the breath of life." As Paul quotes Genesis 2:7, "the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." That's the natural way of things. And when that soul or or anima departs, the creature is no longer alive. But the resurrection body will be different. For before it was quickened by the soul, but then it will be made alive by the Spirit of God and can never die.

How can this be? Compare Adam and Christ, who is called the last or ultimate Adam. Our ancestor Adam was made of dust, and to dust he returned. Our Saviour Jesus Christ also shared our dust, but His life was from above, from heaven, and so the grave could not hold Him. Jesus is the Man from heaven who puts His Spirit in us to make us alive and to cause our weak and mortal bodies to be raised up glorious and immortal like His own.

Our flesh and blood as it now is cannot inherit the kingdom of God. But the same power that raised Jesus from the dead will raise our mortal bodies as well and make them like His own. This is a truth that all the religious systems and philosophies of this world could never conceive. It took Jesus the Son of God to reveal it to us, and He is the one who made it possible.

So give glory to God and rejoice in the resurrection victory He gives! It is your hope and your shield and the perfection of all God's plans for you. Already Jesus has put His Holy Spirit in you, as a down payment to prove that you will live eternally with Him. Not as a ghost, not as a spirit, not even as an angel in heaven, but as something much better: As a splendid, bodily, spiritual human being, who with all His saints will glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!

The Secret Factor

Texts: Ezekiel 36:16-36; Mark 5:21-43

YOU KNOW HOW YOU’LL BE WATCHING a commercial on TV, and it claims that the product is "New and Improved!"? Yeah, right, they say that all the time; there’s probably nothing new about that cleaner or tool or whatever it is, at all. But then you try it, and what do you know? It really is better. It’s got some patented new ingredient or factor in it that makes it more effective than it was before. The manufacturer may give this ingredient a fancy name for advertising purposes, but what it actually is is a secret, and the secret ingredient makes all the difference.

Secret ingredients and secret factors can make all the difference in machines and laundry detergents. So how much more does it matter in God’s plan for our salvation! Nearly two thousand years ago in the land of occupied Israel comes a rabbi from Nazareth named Jesus preaching, teaching, and healing, and at first He struck the crowd as just another preaching, teaching, and healing rabbi-- a lot of them were around in those days. But as people encountered Him and experienced what He did, they came to realize there was something different about Jesus, some secret factor that set Him apart from the rest. The whole gospel according to St. Mark is about that secret factor, about who Jesus really is. It’s so important to Mark that he reveals from the start what it is. Turn if you will to the first verse of Mark’s Gospel, and let’s read what he says there. It says, "The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

Wow! Jesus of Nazareth not only is the Christ-- the Anointed One-- the Messiah, He is also the one and only Son of God! Jesus comes proclaiming the kingdom of God, and He’s not just a messenger or herald like John the Baptist, Jesus is the divine King Himself. Where Jesus is, there is God’s Kingdom, and bit by bit, miracle by miracle, Jesus reveals that all the promises of God are totally and gloriously fulfilled in Him.

In our reading from Ezekiel we have an example of some of those promises. The Lord says that the people of Israel and their land would be cleansed of its bloody defilement and healed in spirit and heart. The Lord would put His Spirit on them so they would not defile themselves with idols and disobedience again. These words of cleansing were for the Jewish exiles who would return from Babylon, yes. But they looked forward to an even greater salvation than the physical and political restoration promised then. The land, as it says in verse 35, will be like the Garden of Eden; paradise will be restored and all the nations will honor the name of the Lord.

This is ultimately a picture of the coming Kingdom of God. Jesus not only talks about the Kingdom; He makes it real in all He teaches and does. A few days before the events of our passage in Mark 5, Jesus showed His dominion over nature by calming a ferocious storm with a word. Then He showed His rulership over the demons by casting a legion of them out of a man whom no one could subdue. And now, in our passage, He shows that He is the Lord who cleanses His people from all their impurities.

On this particular day, Jesus and His disciples have barely landed on shore when Jairus, one of the synagogue rulers-- he’d be like an elder in the church, but with more social position and better perks-- comes running up to Jesus and begs Him to come heal his young daughter, who dying right now. But while life remains, there is hope, and if anyone can heal his child, Jesus can.

You can imagine the crowd. People were glad to see Jesus anyway, and now there was the chance to see Him do a spectacular miracle for a very prominent man. After all, people could understand that He might be the Messiah-- an inspired, holy, God-driven, strictly-human Messiah. And come the day King Jesus would free Israel and sit down on His throne in Jerusalem, they could say that they were there to see Him prove He was the Christ. Not an opportunity you’d want to miss.

Meanwhile, one woman in the crowd was making her own opportunity . . . A woman who had suffered for the past twelve years with a pathological flow of blood. The physical and financial toll had been drastic enough. The social and religious suffering she must have endured would have been even worse.

To understand her position, it would help for us to read Leviticus 15:25-31:

"‘When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period. Whoever touches them will be unclean; he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening. . . .

"‘You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them.’"

There were similar rules in the Law of Moses for anyone, male or female, who had any sort of running sore or bodily discharge, especially blood. Emissions violated the physical perfection of one’s body. They were signs of sin and disorder. They were incompatible with wholeness and therefore with holiness before God. The blood of the altar brought forth cleansing and acceptance with the Lord, but blood in the wrong place and from the wrong source was polluting. We see that in our Ezekiel passage, where the Lord says that Israel’s wicked conduct was like a woman’s monthly uncleanness before Him. Misplaced, uncontrolled blood and every other bodily discharge made not only the one who had it ritually unclean, but also everyone and everything that person touched.

We mustn’t impose our 21st century ideas on this woman. It’s doubtful she’d gone around the past twelve years resenting this law and feeling the injustice of it all. Even as she suffered, she would have accepted that this was how things were. She wanted to correct her condition; she’d spent every penny she had trying to be cured. She wanted to stand again in the synagogue and the Temple clean and whole before her neighbors and Almighty God. But now she no longer even had anyone she could send to ask Jesus to come to her to heal her. She takes advantage of the facelessness and crush of the crowd and exercises the last hope she has. Jesus was there, in the middle of the scrum, and "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed."

And her faith was rewarded. Free, free at last! Free from the blood, free from the pain, free from the debilitation, free from the impurity! We have read what happens next, how Jesus in His compassion draws the woman out and gives her the time to tell Him the whole truth about why and how she did what she did. Poor Jairus Mark doesn’t mention, but we can imagine what terrible anxiety he must be in. Every second longer that this woman talks is one second closer to its being too late for his little girl! But Jesus has all the time in the world to give to the healed woman, because He is God incarnate, Lord of Eternity. He certifies and declares her healing and her cleansing from her impurity. "Daughter," He says, "your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." Her physical suffering ended the moment she touched His clothes; now, with the blessing of the Son of God, the suffering of her heart and soul and relationships are also at an end. In her the prophecy of Ezekiel is fulfilled; for her in Jesus Christ the Kingdom of God has come.

But the crowd and the messengers from Jairus’ house don’t know that. They’re not in on the secret of who Jesus actually is. "Your daughter is dead," they tell the synagogue ruler. "Why bother the teacher any more?" In other words, "There’s nothing even Jesus can do now. Give it up and come home."

Jesus ignores them. "Jairus," He says, "Don’t be afraid; keep on believing." Jairus, you believed in Me a few minutes ago; you can still rely on Me now.

Jesus forbids the crowd to follow Him any farther, but it’s likely they’d lost interest anyway. Everyone knows the child is dead. She was practically dead when her father set out on his desperate mission. The professional mourners are already there doing their job. What a laugh that Jesus should say, "The child is not dead but asleep"!

Now, some commentators claim that this means Jesus knew she was only in a coma. But how could He know that? He had not seen her yet. And this was a culture that did its dying at home. They knew what death looked like. No, this twelve year old girl slept the sleep of death, the sleep of those who go to the grave awaiting the resurrection. Jesus was a mighty healer, but what could even He do in a case like this?

He went into the death chamber taking only her parents and Peter, James, and John. He reached out and took the hand of that cold corpse and spoke life into it. "Talitha koum!"-- "Little girl, I say to you, get up!" Jesus Christ the Lord of life gave life where there was none, so that she stood up perfectly well and healthy. And as with the woman healed of the flow of blood, Jesus is divinely compassionate and commands that she be fed. This child is not a mere test case, a demonstration of His kingly power. She was a human being, an adolescent girl who’d be hungry and needed something to eat.

Jesus strictly orders everyone present not to let anyone know what He had done for that little girl. For it was not yet time for Him to reveal who and what He was. His Messiahship was not to be founded on the death and resurrection of the daughter of Jairus, but on the death and resurrection of the Son of God.

But here’s something we might overlook. The bleeding woman touched Jesus. The Law said that anyone an unclean person touched would be contaminated, too. But Jesus does not withdraw and undergo the rituals for cleansing. Jesus touched the corpse of the dead girl. Here is what the Law says in the book of Numbers about that:

"Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days. He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. Whoever touches the dead body of anyone and fails to purify himself defiles the LORD’s tabernacle. That person must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean; his uncleanness remains on him."

But Jesus doesn’t observe this ordinance, either. In fact, He goes to Nazareth and teaches in the synagogue the very next Sabbath. Is Jesus guilty (as the scribes and Pharisees claimed) of flouting the Law of Moses? Or is the secret factor about Him at work here?

Of course it is. He is the Son of God. He is the Lord of holiness who as it says in Ezekiel 36 sprinkles the water of cleansing on us. He is the Lord of life who makes disease and uncleanness, sin and death as though they had never been. All our impurity can never contaminate Him.

Except . . . except on a dark dirty Friday on a hill called Calvary when He took all our uncleanness and corruption on Himself, that we might stand pure, whole, and acceptable before Almighty God. Your sin and mine was like a twelve-year issue of menstrual blood, but the blood of Jesus shed for us on the cross makes us pure and clean, fit to enter His Kingdom. In our trespasses and sins we were dead and rotting corpses, but faith in the dead body of our Lord Jesus Christ makes us whole and makes us deathless children of God. He purged away all our impurity on that cross and three days later rose again, revealed as our pure and holy Lord and King.

The people in Jesus’ day didn’t realize who He was. But now the secret is revealed and the promises of the Kingdom are for you and for all whom the Lord shall call. What a great miracle that is! In His divine compassion, Jesus put forth His power and did all this for us! The secret factor of Christ the Son of God is a secret no longer; no, Jesus commands us to spread the news throughout the world!

But maybe this means nothing to you as yet. Maybe you’re trying to clean yourself up before you come and fall at His feet. Can you be hygienic wallowing in a cesspool? Give it up. Maybe you’re still kidding yourself about how offensive your sins are to God and you’re hoping to earn your way to eternal life by your good deeds. Can a stinking corpse run a marathon? Give it up. Your situation is worse than you realize and the blood of Jesus Christ is your only hope.

But there is hope in Jesus, overwhelming, abundant hope. He will never fail you, never send you away, never let you down. His heart is moved with compassion for you, for He is your Great Physician. Nothing is impossible for Him, for He is the Son of God the Father Almighty. Like the woman in the crowd, reach out now in faith and Jesus will cleanse you from all your sin. Trust Him like Jairus, and Jesus will give you new life like the life He won when He came forth triumphant from the grave.

No other Messiah. No other healer. No other god. Jesus, in our helplessness, help us, we pray. Look with compassion upon us, cleanse us from all our sins, give us new life in your name, and fill us with Your peace. Amen.

The Ultimate Prophet

Texts: I Kings 17:17-24; Luke 7:11-17

WHAT IS A PROPHET? What does he or she do?

When I was in seminary, sometimes I'd go to the nearest big city to shop or attend a meeting or a concert or whatever.

On one of the main streets you were sure to see a certain character. He carried a placard, like a gigantic chalkboard, with words written on it in various colors. It was always the same message, and it said something like, "The wrath of God is coming! Don't eat cow, pig, beans, bird! Repent!" There was a lot more to it, against sex, drugs, violence and all, but that's the part I remember, how he called poultry "bird" and ranked "eating beans" as an abomination against God.

Is that a prophet? Is that what a prophet does?

But maybe a prophet is more somebody who predicts the future. Like your aunt who said you'd end up marrying that person you didn't like at first--and you did. Or the theorist who looks at the signs and predicts what the climate will be like in a hundred years, or when the next big war will occur.

Preachers of doom. Predictors of the future: That's how the general public thinks of prophets these days. We Christians would also point to prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah who spoke the word of the Lord and really could foretell the future, because God Himself was telling them what was to come. And we might debate whether prophets like that are around any more.

But I think we'd be pretty well agreed that being a prophet is about speaking a certain message, and that message is generally about what'll happen in the future. That's why it's called prophecy, right?

Which is why it might seem odd to hear the reaction of the crowd at Nain when Jesus raises the widow's son from the dead. He didn't preach, He didn't predict. But the people were all filled with awe and said, "A great prophet has risen among us!"

We might be tempted to ask, "Hey, folks, don't you mean 'a great miracle worker'? Where's the message from God in what Jesus just did?"

But the people of Nain were right in their reaction, more right than they knew, themselves. And it all comes down to what a prophet; that is, a prophet of God, really is.

In the Book of Numbers, the Lord says, "When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams." A prophet is one with whom the Lord truly communicates.

In Deuteronomy, the Lord declares, "If a prophet . . . appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder . . . takes place, and he says, 'Let us follow other gods . . . and . . . worship them,' you must not listen to that prophet." A true prophet of God will always give glory to God. He or she is faithful, and will never contradict what the Lord has handed down in His Word.

Also in Deuteronomy, the Lord speaks of a prophet to come and says, "I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will bring him to account." A prophet of God makes God's will known to the people.

In Zechariah, the Lord says, "[D]id not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your forefathers? Then they repented and said, 'The Lord Almighty has done to us just what our ways and practices deserved, just as he determined to do.'" A prophet calls people to repentance and declares what the Lord will do if they do not obey Him.

And in 2 Kings, a young Israelite slave girl tells her mistress about the prophet Elisha, saying, "If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." God demonstrates His presence and power through His prophets by the working of miracles.

In all these things, the true prophet is there for God's sake, and not for his own. A true prophet is sent to give us what God knows we need, not what we think we want. The true prophet is there to show God to us, that He might be worshipped and glorified.

The people of Nain knew that. They knew that God demonstrated His presence and love through His prophets and the miracles they worked. When they saw what Jesus did for the widow and her son, they gave God praise and said, "A great prophet has risen among us. God has looked favorably on his people!" They recognised that Jesus was a true prophet.

They saw it in His godly compassion. Luke says that when the Lord saw the widow walking in front of the bier of her only son, His heart went out to her, and He acted on her behalf.

They recognised it in His calm authority when He told her, "Do not weep." Jesus can say that because He can do something about the cause of her grief. For you or me to come up to a mother who's lost her only child and say, "Don't cry!" would be an obscenity and an imposition. Of course she should cry in the face of death! But Jesus can face death down. He has a right to say, "Do not weep!"

Then Jesus reaches out His hand and touches the bier. I wonder, did any of His disciples or any one in the crowd think, "Oh, no, Teacher, you mustn't pollute yourself by touching a dead body!"? If they did, it didn't matter, because life and cleanness were about to overcome death and corruption.

Jesus commands the corpse, "Young man, I say to you, rise!" He does; and Jesus, who has just given him new life, gives him back to his mother.

The townspeople are rightly filled with the fear of God. They rightly understand, as the Greek says, that "God has visited his people." It's significant that Luke the physician uses "visit" in the sense of a doctor coming to heal a patient, not "visit" in the sense of a judge coming to pass sentence. They recognise in Jesus a great prophet, like Elijah, coming in the Spirit, love, and life-giving power of the Lord.

Elijah was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. He was the prophet against whom all other prophets were measured. Elijah spoke God's judgement before kings and performed mighty wonders. Elijah brought God near to His people Israel, whether they wanted Him near or not. It is certain that when Jesus raised the widow's son at Nain, the onlookers immediately thought of the widow and her son at Zarephath and what had been done for them by the great Elijah.

But there's something they likely missed in their awe and praise. When Elijah raised the son of the widow of Zarephath, he had to ask God for the boy's life back. It was all up to the Lord. Elijah had no power of himself to restore life; he was an ordinary mortal like any of us. The boy was raised only when the Lord heard and acted on Elijah's prayer.

But Jesus can simply say, "Young man, I say to you, rise!" and the dead man sits up alive and healthy and begins to speak! Jesus can do that because He does have power in Himself to give life!

Jesus can do that because He is not merely a prophet, He is the ultimate prophet. He is the Word of God spoken directly from the mouth of God, incarnate among us. He is the Law of God lived out in all its purity here on this earth. He is the power and compassion of God demonstrated in signs and wonders among the people. Yes, God had come to help and heal His people! He was doing it in person, and His name was Jesus of Nazareth. No prophet before or since could ever be the Prophet that He is.

But in our hearts we wonder: if Jesus is the ultimate Prophet, and if He demonstrated the power of God by miracles like raising the widow's son at Nain, why didn't He go on to raise all widows' sons, and their daughters, too? Why doesn't He look down from heaven and immediately banish pain, suffering, and grief from all our loved ones?

If you're going through a hardship like this, I can't answer that question for you in your particular case. But taking the bigger picture, I would suggest that if Jesus did that, He wouldn't be the Prophet we need Him to be. No matter how we feed it, heal it, or prolong it, this earthly life of ours will come to an end. These mortal bodies will die and decay. They are infected with sin and never can be the perfect lives we all wish we had. They can never be worthy to stand in the presence of the perfect, holy God. Jesus healed bodies to give us a sample, a taste, of what life will be like in that day when He heals body and soul together.

And truly, God our Father knows what it is like to have an only Son die young. Jesus was the only innocent human being who ever lived. He is the only one of whom we can say, "He didn't deserve to die like that." Jesus didn't deserve to die at all!

But He did die, and God raised Him from the dead. His resurrection is the ultimate sign of God present with us. Already, if you have Him living in you by the power of the Holy Spirit, He's given you new life in your inmost being. Think of it: Jesus our Lord has already raised your spirit from the dead, and in His perfect time He will give you an undying body and make you perfectly whole.

The prophets of old represented the life and power and righteousness to God's people Israel. And even now, our Lord Jesus displays the power of God to us. He is the presence of God with us. He is the ultimate Prophet, Emmanuel, Christ the Lord.

All praise, honor, and glory be to you, Lord Christ, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

[Preached Thursday, 7 June, and Sunday, 10 June 2007]

Why It Matters What Happened

Texts: 1 Corinthians 1-8, 12-20; Luke 19:28-44

IT NEVER FAILS. It just never fails. We just CAN’T get to Easter without some so-called expert coming up with some amazing new so-called evidence that Jesus really wasn’t who the Bible says He is and that He didn’t really rise from the dead.

This year it came early. This year, we got the TV program alleging that archaeologists had actually found the dusty bones of our Savior-- and the bones of His family as well. That’s the truth, according to film makers Simcha Jacobovici and James Cameron: Jesus’ bones are going down to dust in a rock-cut tomb outside Jerusalem, along with the bones of His wife (Mary Magdalene, of course!) and His mother and His brothers and His cousins and His aunts.

Yeah, right. And I’m the Easter Bunny.

True, legitimate scholars wasted no time proving Cameron and Jacobovici wrong. It’s true there’s a tomb they found back in 1980 with common names like "Yeshua" and "Mariam" and "Yose" on them. But the evidence doesn’t fit what archaeologists know about how burials were done with various classes of people back in Jesus’ day. And it contradicts what we know about Jesus and His earthly family from the Gospels. And the Gospels are the earliest eye-witness accounts. They’re what scholars call "primary sources," and if an historian or other scholar won’t pay attention to primary sources, he’s no historian or true scholar at all.

James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici aren’t historians or scholars. They don’t even claim to be. They’re film makers. But they still wanted people around the world to believe their story about Jesus never being raised from the dead, about Jesus’ body still being in the tomb.
Does that shock you? It shouldn’t. It’s just unbelievers acting like unbelievers.

We could have a real good time this morning going over all the reasons why Cameron and Jacobovici are wrong. If you want to know about that, I can put you in touch with some resources that prove their conclusions are in error. But today, on this glorious Feast of the Resurrection, let’s look instead at why anyone would want to prove Jesus never rose from the dead, and then why it matters so much to us that He really did.

In our reading from 1 Corinthians 15, St. Paul tells us that Christ’s death and resurrection are of first importance to us and our Christian faith. If Jesus is not risen from the dead, we’re telling lies about God to say He was, and God’s wrath will be upon us. If Jesus is not risen, our faith is futile and we are still in our sins.

. . . . Oh, yes. There it is. That annoying four-letter word: "Sins." Jesus didn’t die and rise to prove He could, He died to pay the terrible price for our sins and He rose to give us changed, new, godly lives. His death was a thunderous judgement upon the selfishness, the greed, the lust, the unrighteous anger, the idolatry of every last one of us. And His resurrection life given to us is proof that we all need to change. The lives we got when our mothers birthed us aren’t good enough for God. We have to have the risen life of Jesus Christ in us, or be forever condemned.

But it’s not just obvious unbelievers like Cameron and Jacobovici. Before the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ, we all resent being told we’re sinners. We all reject the idea that we have to be given a new life, or else die. It’s of first importance to all the unbelieving world to reject the truth and power of the resurrection and try to prove the New Testament wrong. It would allow them to go on thinking they’re okay just the way they are. It allows them to hang onto their self-image as wonderful people.

But wishing won’t make it so. As St. Paul says, "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." Our sins could only be covered by the blood of God’s own innocent Son. And, "He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." Eternal life for us could only come from Him. The world may not choose to believe it, but, as the Holy Spirit says, "Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."

In St. Luke’s account of that first Resurrection morning, we read that Peter and the rest of the disciples didn’t believe the Good News the women brought. Peter went to the tomb anyway, just in case. But when he saw it was empty, he still didn’t believe. He just went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

It hits me that if that’s all the Gospels had to record, it would make sense for us to try to find the tomb of Jesus Christ-- though if Christ is not risen, nobody today would even care or know about Him any more. Why believe the women? In Jesus’ day, their testimony women would have counted for nothing in a court of law. Maybe they were just deluded! And an empty tomb and folded graveclothes are not conclusive proof that a very dead Man has been raised bodily from the grave.

But we know the story does not end there. When we read this history in St. Luke, we have that delicious sensation of knowing more than the people in that long-ago garden did. We want to say, "Peter! Peter! We can tell you what happened! Jesus really is risen! Just wait! In a few minutes you’ll meet Him face to face, yourself! In a few hours, He’ll come and greet you and all the disciples in person! Rejoice in what has happened, Peter! Christ is risen indeed!"

An empty tomb that morning can be argued against. But Jesus appeared alive among them, time after time. He appeared to Peter, then to the Twelve, then later at one time to over five hundred reliable witnesses, most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in AD 55. You can believe them and the accounts they left behind. If you don’t believe them, you may as well not believe anything that history tells us.

I know there are people cannot yet believe that Jesus has been raised. They don’t want to be cheated or fall for something that might not be true. They want reliable proof, and they’re willing to be shown it.

But if you positively will not believe the word of Scripture, very likely it matters to you that what happened that day was not the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Your self-esteem; your whole sense of self depend on it not being true.

But even more it matters to us Christians that He rose that day.

If Christ were not raised, what are we doing here? You want to do nice things for your fellow humans? Go join the Kiwanas Club! You want to embark on a campaign of personal moral improvement or strengthen your marriage? Read any book by Dr. Laura Schlesinger! The Church-- all of us gathered here today and all of us gathered in the Spirit throughout the world-- the Church isn’t about making us nice, helpful, prosperous, fulfilled people! It’s about proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ risen from the dead. It’s about bringing new birth to others and together living lives that will prepare us to live with Him forever in Eternity. If the Christ you worship is not risen, He can’t help you after you die. For as Paul says, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied beyond all men." If Jesus is not risen, give it up! Quit the church! Why knock yourself out to be helpful and good? You’ll just moulder in the grave anyway!

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Jesus’ physical resurrection gives us a free sample of what we’re going to get when we rise from the dead and get our new bodies, too. More than that, Christ’s physical resurrection is the first portion of a glorious offering He’s going to make to His God and our God, His Father and our Father. He offered those firstfruits going on two thousand years ago. The rest of the offering will be lifted up to God when we-- all we who believe in His name-- are raised up bodily at the Last Day, when we will be just like Him and God will accept us as worthy in His sight.

Our hope is not just for this world, it is also for the world to come. It matters deeply that we can trust with our minds as well as with our hearts that Jesus Christ is risen, indeed.

And if it matters to us, it matters more to Almighty God. For that is really why it matters what happened that April morning around 30 AD. The resurrection of Christ glorifies His Father in heaven. Our resurrection with Christ displays God’s love, honor, and grace. It brings Him eternal praise. It vindicates His righteousness and utterly defeats Death and the Devil, our enemy and His.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is for us. But ultimately, it’s about God. And so we give our Father glory, honor, and praise for what He has done for us in our Savior Jesus Christ. We renounce all sinful ways that contradict the new life He has given us through His Son. We pray diligently for lost souls like James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, and especially for unbelievers who may be our co-workers, our neighbors, or members of our own families, that Christ’s resurrection light will dawn upon them, and they, too, will be saved. And we look forward to the great Day when our own bodies will be transformed to be like the resurrection body of Jesus Christ; to whom with the Holy Spirit and God the Father be all power, riches, wisdom, and strength, glory, honor, and blessing. Alleluia, amen!

[Preached at the main service, the Feast of the Resurrection, A.D. 2007]