Resurrection - did it happen and what does it mean? - Rev Allister Lane
READING: MARK 16: 1-8
Sermon on Easter Sunday
We hear this story of the resurrection of Jesus, with its strange details and curious range of responses.And there are two questions that are crucial for us at Easter:
Did the resurrection really happen?
What does the resurrection mean for us?
In my experience, scepticism about the reliability of the resurrection is a mixture of pseudoscience, and the Da Vinci Code! But, although the challenge to the credibility of the resurrection isn’t actually very strong, it is still a big claim (possibly the biggest claim, with big consequences).
So, we should be interested in the reliability of the resurrection. As the Apostle Paul makes clear:
If Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile [and] we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Cor 15:17)
What’s true is that the vast majority of historians agree:
Jesus was crucified and killed
His tomb was discovered empty
His disciples had experiences in which they believed the risen Jesus appeared to them
The early church began because of, and was founded on the belief in, the resurrection
So, I want to examine these four conclusions that support the truth of the resurrection of Jesus, to which the gospels bear witness.
1. Jesus was crucified and killed
This conclusion is important in refuting the suggestion from some that Jesus somehow ‘survived’ his execution. The suggestion is that Jesus wasn’t resurrected because he didn’t really die – he had three days in the tomb ‘recovering’!
The truth is, there is plenty of evidence that Jesus died. The most convincing for me personally, is that the Romans were practiced professionals at crucifying people; and in that demanding military hierarchy no one risked making mistakes!
2. His tomb was discovered empty
How do we know the tomb was discovered empty? Because there were witnesses.
Our reading today describes their experience – they found the stone rolled away and when they went inside Jesus wasn’t there anymore.
One apparent problem with this conclusion supporting the resurrection is that these very first witnesses to the empty tomb were women.
The evidence furnished by female witnesses had no standing in a male-dominated society. If the empty tomb story had been manufactured by the early church ... one would have expected a fool-proof account attributed to obviously reliable [i.e. male] witnesses.
So, the only reason you’d include women as the first eyewitnesses in the account is… if it is true.
3. His disciples had experiences in which they believed the risen Jesus appeared to them
In addition to those very first witnesses to the empty tomb, there were other witnesses…
Christ was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and … he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. (1 Cor 15:4-6)
The importance of the role of witnesses in verifying the resurrection is superbly covered in the book ‘Jesus and the Eyewitnesses’ by Richard Bauckham (who preached here at St John’s a few years ago). This book is well worth reading (as I’m unable to summarise it all now!)
Another scholar – Gary Habermas – makes the main point:
The most crucial aspect of an argument for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection is that the disciples were totally convinced that they had seen appearances of the risen Jesus. The community of critical scholars holds that these experiences are thoroughly historical.
These same scholars nearly always recognize that natural alternative responses do not explain the data. Therefore, the impressive evidences that establish the disciples’ experiences, especially in light of the failure of these alternatives, now become impressive evidences for the resurrection appearances themselves.
4. The early church began because of, and was founded on the belief in, the resurrection
The lives of these witnesses were transfor’med. Jesus said ‘go and change the world’ ... and they said “okay”. They lived tough lives, but always proclaiming 110% the truth that Jesus is alive.And many of them died for this truth.
It is said Liars make bad martyrs.’
If the disciples were totally disappointed and on the verge of desperate flight because of the very real reason of the Crucifixion, it took another very real reason in order to transform them from a band of disheartened and dejected Jews into the most self-confident missionary society in world history. - Pinchas Lapide, cited in “Religion: Resurrection?”, Time Magazine , 7 May 1979
So let’s recap what the vast majority of historians agree:
Jesus was crucified and killed
His tomb was discovered empty
His disciples had experiences in which they believed the risen Jesus appeared to them
The early church began because of, and was founded on the belief in, the resurrection
Remove the resurrection and you struggle to explain the emergence of Christianity.
When answering the question ‘did the resurrection really happen?’, John Dickson observes:
How we interpret the…historical data depends significantly on our prior philosophical assumptions. If I am convinced that the laws of nature are the only things regulating the universe…then I will refuse to accept any evidence as sufficient to demonstrate the occurrence of a ‘miracle’, whether a healing or a resurrection.
But those of us who don’t share this atheistic assumption…can logically conclude that, since we have exactly the kind of evidence you would expect a resurrection to leave behind, we are warranted in declaring that Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead.
The second important question is ‘what does the resurrection mean for us?’
The compelling evidence gives us reasons to accept the fact of the resurrection, but we need more than this raw fact on its own. I know that Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Mount Everest. But does that change my life? Not really.
We need to see how the resurrection of Jesus changes our lives. Let me suggest three ways.
1. The risen Jesus is with you in the Gospel
He is with us in a way that other historical figures are not – he is not stuck in the past. Wherever and whenever his Good News is proclaimed, he is present by his mysterious and abundant grace.
2. The risen Jesus is with you in Christian community
We have the gift of one another for living changed lives. You’ll see things through the lives of other Christians about Jesus, which you wouldn’t see on your own. And you will hear things from Jesus through them, which you wouldn’t otherwise hear.
3. The risen Jesus is with you at the end
Because of the resurrection, we can each expect a happy ending in our lives, AND a happy ending at THE end of time. J.R.R. Tolkien says the resurrection is the confirmation of all happy endings:
It is the mark of a good fairy-story, of the higher or more complete kind, that however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears it, when the turn comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart.
The resurrection in the Gospel is a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. But this story has entered history, and it has hallowed every happy ending. It is why we love stories in books, films, and Netflix that grip us with the darkness, challenge, trial ... and then turn with a rescue, a breakthrough, a returning home.
We believe (in our bones) life DOES have a happy ending, and every smaller happy ending feels right because of it.
[Jesus'] resurrection is therefore God's promise of new creation for the whole of the godforsaken reality which the crucified Jesus represents. …it opens up a …new future, which negates all the negatives of present experience.
It opens up a future which is not simply drawn out of the immanent possibilities of present reality, but radically contradicts present reality. It promises life for the dead, righteousness for the unrighteous, freedom for those in bondage.
- Richard Bauckham, Theology of Jürgen Moltmann
In the account from Mark’s Gospel we hear today, we are left dangling somewhat. We aren’t told how those very first women witnesses respond.
Eugene Peterson says this means God is ‘on the loose’; we aren’t doing religious things for him, he is doing things for us.
How will we respond?