Risen Indeed

Mary Magdalene. The “other” Mary. Two travelers walking down a road. Simon Peter. John. These are some of the people who interacted with Jesus after his resurrection. Each gospel presents the Easter story as a movement from sadness to chaotic confusion to utter bewilderment and joy. And yet the earliest writing we have about the resurrection of Jesus comes in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Scholars think this letter was written around the year 51, and in chapter 15 he reminds the Corinthians of the Easter gospel:

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

Theologians point out that 1 Corinthians 15 and each of the four gospels all name people who claimed to witness the resurrected Jesus. Some see this aspect of the text as evidence that in the first decades following the resurrection, the gospel spread through word of mouth. If Paul was writing his letter roughly 20 years after the resurrection, many of those people who saw Jesus would have still been alive. Corinth is a long way--geographically speaking--from Jerusalem, but Paul wants the troubled Corinthian church to trust these first-hand accounts. He says that “more than 500 brothers and sisters” saw Jesus at one time. Each of these people had their own perspectives of this event, and these people became first the church. They had faith that Jesus was alive. 

David Bentley Hart writes, “This appears to be the Gospel’s final word upon the new life that is given at Easter: that with it comes the possibility of seemingly impossible reconciliation, the healing of wounds that normally could never be healed, and the hope of beginning anew precisely when all hope would seem to have been extinguished.”

It is not an overstatement to say that Faith United Methodist Church exists because of Easter. To use Paul’s language, if Jesus is not raised, those who believe he rose are, of all people, “most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:19). But here is how he continues: 

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:20-22)

The resurrection brings us great hope because Jesus is alive and with us. This knowledge is our light when life is full of pain, sorrow, and suffering. This knowledge changes our horizon when life is going well. Christ is risen indeed. Thanks be to God.