RESURRECTION

Genesis 2: 4-9; 1 Corinthians 15: 12-22

What happens after death?  That is one of the world’s age old questions that periodically gets renewed attention. I know some people who absolutely don’t believe anything will happen to us when we die except to cease to exist. Do you know people who believe that?  Hindus, and some others around the world, believe in reincarnation, a practice brought to the spotlight by actress Shirley Maclaine years ago. Coming back in the body of something else; is that what you believe?  That doctrine is not native to Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, but many in the world believe it. What I have heard, is Christians who believe in the immortality of the soul. But if there is one concept for which the New Testament argues it is the resurrection of the body instead of the immortality of the soul. Our pastoral instruction books may talk about “the care of souls,” and some may talk about “saving souls,” and we will even sing an affirmation of our faith “It is Well With My Soul” in a little while. But The Apostle Paul, the giant of early Christian doctrine, had to convince a world that believed the soul lived on forever, that there is really death and new life as happened to the Lord Jesus himself. The Greeks in Asia Minor believed that a good soul got trapped in an evil body and upon death it found release: it never died, just got released. But resurrection is not continuing the same life, it is having a new life die start when the old life ends. Jesus really died on the cross; he did not just get a pure soul released from an evil body. Around the globe, Christians believe that. But imagery of flying away or crossin’ over to the others side can lead one to believe that Christians never die, when we do. In 1 Corinthians 15 (our text today), Paul says “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, but our spiritual bodies will go to the wonderful place prepared for us.  Today’s text is a great example of Paul’s argument for resurrection. See what you think if you were hearing his debate for the first time, and perhaps you are.

A brand new life. That’s what Paul wanted the Corinthians to understand about life beyond death. You see, even though, in today’s pluralistic age, we have many notions about what happens after death, the world in New Testament times had at least as many notions, all except resurrection. Resurrection was the new kid on the theological block; a new way of thinking about life after death, and Paul takes advantage of his teachable moment. He begins with the Greek system of thought called logic, and uses it to present his new idea. Some, even today, pride themselves in their logical way of dealing with life, that is, until they are sitting in a room with a dying loved one; or they pick up the phone to learn that a parent has had a heart attack or stroke.  We may want to be logical about watching others grow older and older, but sometimes logic enters in less and less.  Even with a “Do Not Resuscitate” order, loved ones, up against the wall of life, may cry out to do everything possible to save their parent or child or spouse.  So the mystery of death and the potential loss of a loved one make us vacillate from logical to almost irrational.  The Greeks prided themselves on logic, even as in crisis there were tears. Our world has really changed little; so even though there are times we are emotional, logic is still part of our makeup.  Paul’s first words to the early Christians are words also for us: RESURRECTION IS REAL. It was not some clever human scheme or cosmic play-acting when Jesus was raised! Paul goes back to Christ to prove his point. Listen to 1 Corinthians 15: 12 and the following: “Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching has been in vain. … For if the dead in Christ have not been raised, then Christ has not been raised, and our faith is futile and we are still locked in sin. And those who have died have also perished….But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of them that slept. …. For as in Adam, all die, in Christ shall all be made alive!”  If you have trouble following his argument, it would go like this if we substituted different words. “Now if you are indeed alive, (watch mist form on a mirror held close to your nose and mouth!) how can some of you say that you were never born? If you are not alive, then others are not alive either! If you had not been born, then your life would be a fallacy. But, indeed, you have been born, and you are still alive!”

Such an argument seems self-evident: “of course I am alive! And if I’m alive, at some point I was born!”  That’s the approach Paul takes with the Corinthians. Of course there is a resurrection of the dead! And if Christ was raised and went to prepare a place for us( according to his own words in John 14), then we too can be raised!  God is willing; the rest is up to us!

It all seems pretty tidy. It all seems pretty well understood by our brains. If you say you believe in your head, that is one thing, but to be willing to put your faith to the test and truly follow Jesus, that is another thing altogether. Plenty say they believe; but Jesus is looking for those who take the leap; the resurrection leap of being not just a believer, but a follower. There is a huge difference between the two. Let me describe the difference with a story: the “Great Blondin” was a French tightrope walker who performed at Niagara Falls in the early 1900s. He did tightrope acts from one platform to another and people would give him generous applause for his act, and even pay to see it. As the crowds began to dwindle, he got permission to “kick things up a notch:” he stretched his wire from one side of the falls to the other and crossed over with the deadly torrents of water below him. Getting his balance was difficult on the cable (made slippery by the fall’s mist), but he carried a pole to steady himself. He made it across!! Each day the crowds of people held their breath; they watched out of curiosity, and out of fear, but they watched. Day after day, week after week, Blondin made it across the wire and back again. But even that did not hold a crowd’s interest forever. In another daring move, he came up with a new gimmick: instead of carrying a pole to steady himself, he would push a wheelbarrow across the deadly falls on a narrow wire, still with no safety net. Any slip would mean certain death. Yet he did that too! The people believed in Blondin! But when it came to one final test of faith, the crowds failed him. One day, still with a large crowd, he came to push the wheelbarrow across the falls on the wire again. He had never fallen or hurt himself. This time he really tested their belief in him and his talents: He shouted, “Do you believe that I can push this wheelbarrow across the gorge from this side to the other as I have done on every other occasion? Who believes I can do it?”  Nearly every hand went up. Then he offered the comments that chilled them.  “It is good that you have faith in me. Now which among you will be the first to let me carry you across the wire in my wheelbarrow?”

No matter how much you believer in Jesus Christ, no matter how much you believe in resurrection as a spectator, sooner or later a follower of Christ will be asked to be a participant. Are you ready to take that step? Are you ready to trust your Lord to carry your changed body across the jaws of death, to the others side, where new life awaits you?  May you decide to walk through the valley of the shadow of death with Jesus, and land on the bright side of life.

Jeffrey A. Sumner                                                  May 18, 2008