Christ Is Risen

 Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

We celebrate Easter, the resurrection of our Lord. I know for many people Easter is simply egg hunts, brunch and baskets full of goodies, a celebration of spring and family. But in actuality, Easter is the celebration of our risen Savior. All the other things, though fun and festive, have nothing to do with the real reason we have Easter.

Christians believe that Jesus was nailed to a Roman cross, died, was buried and then rose from the dead. If that sounds unbelievable, it is. It’s a full blown miracle, not a usual event. Even more unbelievable, Jesus went to that cross to die for our sins, to take God’s punishment for sin in our place. How unbelievable is that? Yet all of this unbelievable is what Christians believe.

Paul writes in I Corinthians 15 that if there was no resurrection, Christians of all people are to be “most pitied”. Most pitied because they believe in a pipe dream, an empty promise; they believe in the unbelievable. Resurrection is the central heart of Christianity. Christians place their faith in Jesus because He died in their place. There is no doubt that historically Jesus died, but the proof that God accepted His sacrifice is in the resurrection. Because He lives, we too can live, fully accepted by God. Forgiven. So without the resurrection, the death is just another martyr’s sacrifice of life. Sad, but accomplishing little beyond a powerful testimony. “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins" (I Corinthians 15:14, 17)

Recently I spent a lot of time talking about Jesus’ I AM statements. I AM (Yahweh) is the name God called Himself in the burning bush before Moses. It is the most sacred name of God for the Jews. Every time Jesus used that phrase, beginning with “before Abraham was, I AM”, the Jewish religious leaders were shaken to the core. They understood what He was saying. They took it as blasphemy. A mere human claiming to be God. Jesus wasn’t a “mere human”; He was God incarnate, come in human form. He came to die, because He was the only way humankind could be saved. Nothing short of God Himself could save us from our sin. He couldn’t just wave a hand and wipe it out (like many wonder why not?). Sin demanded a penalty – death. Sin is that horrific, nothing but death, spiritual and physical, can end it. Nothing we could possibly do could clear sin and its penalty from our lives. But God could do it for us, and did by going to death in our place. And, being God, He gave His life for us, no one took it from Him.

John 18 gives an interesting look into Jesus’ arrest. He asked the arresting soldiers whom they were seeking, and they said “Jesus of Nazareth.” John 18:5, 6 “‘I AM he’, Jesus said…When Jesus said, ‘I AM he’ they (the soldiers) drew back and fell to the ground.” The force of God hit them, and they fell to the ground. Some arrest party.  We are told that Jesus gave Himself up for sacrifice. No mere human could have arrested Jesus, let alone nailed him to a cross. Jesus went willingly, because His death was necessary in our place. Nothing else could satisfy God’s penalty for sin. So the soldiers pick themselves up off the ground and arrest Jesus; they arrest God!

On the cross Jesus bears so much more than the physical horror of the Roman cross. It goes beyond imagination what Jesus felt bearing the sin, the brokenness, of all humankind. He took it all, there on the cross. And when that occurred, He said, “It is finished” and gave up His life.  Note, He gave up His life, no Roman soldier took it. When they pierced His side, He was already dead.

They take the body and carry it to a tomb, probably a niche carved into a hill side. Because the religious leaders were aware of Jesus’ promise to rise after three days, the Romans put a huge stone in the doorway of the tomb and set guards to prevent anyone messing with the body. And there He lay.

Paul wrote, “Christ died for our sins according the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” (I Corinthians 15:3, 4) Paul goes on to describe the witnesses of the resurrection. The women, Peter, the rest of the disciples and more than 500 of His followers all saw the resurrected Lord. Paul says at his writing “most of whom are still living.”  Why add that? Because you could go seek them out for yourself and see if they had indeed witnessed the resurrection. “This is what we preach, and this is what you believed.” (I Corinthians 15:11) 

Here is fact, the tomb is empty. It was empty on that Sunday and it’s empty today.  There have been many explanations given – Jesus didn’t really die; He just swooned. - The disciples stole the body to perpetuate the myth that Jesus was resurrected. - The people all went to the wrong tomb and believed what they wanted to see. – Or Jesus actually rose from the dead. The description of the sword piercing while Jesus was still on the cross is pretty convincing medically that Jesus was indeed dead – no swooning. The disciples were terrified they too were going to be hunted and killed. Many were in hiding, and Peter and John only came out when the women came to tell them the tomb was empty. There were Roman guards at the stone. Stealing would have been impossible. But even if they did steal the body, how could they have kept such a secret? Most of the disciples were eventually martyred. Not many of us would be willing to die for a lie. And as for everyone going to the wrong tomb, give me a break. The women went that morning to better preserve the hastily prepared body. They worried about the stone and if the guards would move it for them. The guards were gone and the stone had been moved, they knew they were at the right place, it was the body that was missing.

Jesus rose from the dead. There were many witnesses who saw the risen Lord. The resurrection is true, crazy, miraculous, unbelievable, but true. “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.” (I Corinthians 15:20)

I listened to an interview with author Timothy Keller. He had recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and knew his days were limited when he gave the interview. He made one statement that has stood out to me this Easter season. “If Jesus is really raised from the dead, everything is going to be alright.”* Let that sink it. If you believe, as I do, that Jesus is raised from the dead – no matter what this broken world throws at us, it is going to be OK. God is in control. Crazy presidents, deadly disease, aging, stray bullets, covid, even death - whatever may come can’t hurt us because we are “in Christ Jesus.” Paul ends I Corinthians 15 asking, “where is your sting, death?” The sting of even death is gone because He lives, and because He lives, so do we who have put our trust in Him. Paul says in Romans 8, “Christ Jesus who died- more than that, who is raised to life- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?....No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life…nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39)

A few days before my sister died (of pancreatic cancer), a pastor friend of ours came to visit. Before he left he started singing, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow! Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, life is worth the living, just because He lives.”**

Because He lives, everything will be OK. He is risen indeed!

Happy Easter!

*an interview with Russell Moore and Tim Keller about Keller’s last book Hope in Time of Faith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuCusQ3Y6HY

**Bill and Gloria Gaither. https://www.hymnallibrary.org/hymns/because-he-lives/https://www.hymnallibrary.org/hymns/because-he-lives/