Written by Gordon McPhee
Luke 6: 17-26
WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE!
SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 15:12-20 [MSG]
Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection.
If corpses can’t be raised, then Christ wasn’t, because he was indeed dead. And if Christ weren’t raised, then all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. It’s even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection because they’re already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.
INTRODUCTION:
Our good friend Des Entwistle expressed his concern during a Lenten series talk I presented here many years ago that if one was cremated or their body otherwise destroyed, how would God restore it in the bodily resurrection of the saints? At that time, I encouraged Des not to underestimate what God, who, after all, created everything, could do. As well churched Christians, we speak rather casually, at least amongst ourselves, about dying and going to heaven and, although less often, about being raised again to live with Jesus. This is, in reality, the hope that binds us together. The entire church year marks this hope in Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, and the eucharist is a celebration of remembrance of both Jesus' death and, as Christ, His resurrection. However, as Des expressed, even the most faithful, diligent and consistent of us can have doubts, uncertainties and questions.
And what, for goodness sake, do we tell our neighbours? I would very much like to be a fly on the wall when you try to explain to your coworker, friend or children that everything they have been told about dying is wrong and that one day, long after you’ve been in the grave, Jesus will return and restore your physical body, but like the six-million-dollar-man, ‘better, stronger, faster.’
Well, that’s what Paul is talking to the Corinthian church about in the passage we’ll read today, and frankly, I don’t know if I have any good scientific revelations for you, but like Paul, I’ll try to settle your hearts to the truth about how important this is. We want Jesus, dead or alive.
SERMON:
Paul introduces his argument to the church at Corinth by asking, “If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection?” Earlier in the letter, Paul spoke about Jesus' resurrection in such a way that it is clear the Corinthian church didn’t question Christ's rising from the dead. Even in his question now, he affirms that they became believers for that very reason: they affirmed that Christ was alive.
The problem is that this whole idea of being raised bodily from the dead was a totally new idea to the Gentiles. Also, contrary to what most Christians think of the Old Testament, the thought of an afterlife was a very new idea to the majority of Jews. For the most part, the bible refers to the good and the bad all ending up in Sheol. Paul was a Pharisee, and the Pharisees had adopted some Greek philosophical views about the afterlife. So, he was more easily persuaded than most Jews would be.
The Gentiles, although accepting of an afterlife, endorsed the Neoplatonic idea of the body, the physical, being inherently evil, and the soul, the eternal spirit, needing to attain release from the body. Life was a matter of mastering the body under the spirit's control to obtain that final release and move on to the celestial realms.
The Corinthians, Jews and Gentiles are happy to believe that Jesus is resurrected and alive, but they somehow consider this a special God thing that does not apply to them. Paul goes on to argue, in his inimitably logical fashion, that resurrection is a necessary reality or hope dies. He uses a passive Greek expression, ‘egegertai’ when he speaks of Jesus’ resurrection. Paul is telling the Corinthians that Jesus did not raise himself; he was dead. Jesus ‘was raised’ from the dead by God, just as they can be.
Paul affirms Jesus’ humanity, saying, “If corpses can’t be raised, then Christ wasn’t, because he was indeed dead.” But the Corinthians accept the testimony that Jesus is alive, so Paul reminds them, “If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ.” This puts their lives, their whole foundation of faith, in the garbage; they’ve believed a lie. Paul is taking a risk that they won’t just turn and walk away, but he knows this church and the depth of their faith and commitment.
Paul also uses the Greek word ‘nekros’ when speaking of resurrection. It refers specifically to a corpse, a dead body, so there will be no equivocation on the part of the Corinthians, mistaking Paul as being allegorical or symbolic when speaking of Jesus' resurrection. He takes the Corinthians down an existential path of hopelessness where their faith collapses into just another human religious option. “And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors.” “all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever.” “worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they’re already in their graves.”
Very succinctly and correctly, Paul concludes that “If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot.” We could have better places to spend our Sundays and better ways to spend our money than here in church. It’s true that Christian moral standards are very positive but are also subject to abuse and misuse and have been used to accomplish much harm. If it is not for the hope of bodily resurrection in Jesus Christ, then there is no reason to be here.
The great 19th-century preacher Charles H. Spurgeon said of Jesus' resurrection, “The silver thread of resurrection runs through all the blessings, from regeneration onward to our eternal glory, and binds them together.” He goes on to spell out these blessings that hinge upon the resurrection of Jesus: the divinity of Jesus (Romans 1:4), the sovereignty of Jesus (Romans 14:9), our justification (Romans 4:25), our regeneration (1 Peter 1:3), and ultimately our resurrection (Romans 8:11). Everything we stand for, everything we preach, hinges on the certain reality that Jesus was dead, buried, and bodily brought back to life. Otherwise, we are no different and no better than any other moral, charitable or religious community in the world.
In fact, in my experience, many of them do it much better than we do, not being distracted with the necessity of worshipping someone who is long dead and buried but instead getting on with the productive work in hand of meeting the needs of a world desperate for hope and peace. What do we have to offer over against this need if our hope is in a risen Christ, but there is no bodily resurrection? This is precisely what Paul is saying to the Corinthian church and to us here in Lachute.
So here’s the problem for us today. If Paul is right and absolutely everything you put your faith and hope in, everything that brings you here today, hinges upon a Jesus who was as dead as you and I will one day be but whom we insist is as much alive right here today in body and spirit as you and I are now, what do we tell our neighbours? It’s not “Night of the Living Dead,” “Nosferatu,” or “Twilight Saga.” And yet, we’re professing that, as Paul puts it, corpses can be raised.
Paul is insisting that you are boxed into a corner. You can’t simply tout that Christians have the truth about, as the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” would put it, life, the universe and everything. (Oh, and in case you don’t know, according to its author, Douglas Adams, the answer is 42.) Even a cursory review of church history easily refutes any claim we may make to truth or right. We can proclaim sincere values of love and justice, but then we are just one more voice amongst many who say the same. And so we abandon ourselves and this world to no more hope than we can find in our own abilities. Faith in the systems of government and charity rather than God. As the Psalmist says, “From whence cometh my help” (Psalm 121:1)? But we can only reply, with our fellow citizens, “from each other.”
Rather than singing, “Our chains are gone, I’ve been set free (Amazing Grace {My Chains Are Gone} Chris Tomlin” we must admit that our hope in Jesus is gone, and we are chained again to whatever meagre hope we can eke out of this world. And please understand I’m not speaking from a high ivory tower immune to these realities and difficulties. I have the same problem we all do: I must believe in and proclaim a Jesus who is a corpse raised from the dead, or I am, above all people, most pitiable. We are shunned and looked upon as poor fools who put their trust and hope in wild imaginings and impossibilities that even the simplest-minded person should know are only dreams and mist.
I would suggest, however, that we are in good company. Martin Luther put “Faith Alone” as the means of Grace and Salvation at the heart of the call for church reform. Paul is consistently and constantly outspoken in all his letters, saying that through faith alone, he is an apostle, and we receive salvation in Christ Jesus. Jesus himself said, “All things are possible to those who have faith” (Mark 9:23). Could your faith be more evident, more sorely tested, than to both believe and profess that Jesus is alive, corporeally, bodily, and living as a physical human being seated at the right hand of God the Father as attested in Hebrews 10 (12-13) and that one day after your death your body will be restored to you and you too will live and breath and eat and enjoy the glorious renewed creation of God Almighty? No, I don’t think your faith could be more real or evident.
If you doubt a little at times, I don’t blame you; it’s heady stuff that Paul is asking us to endorse; he calls it “something profound yet troubling.” An understatement at best. I guess he didn’t want to scare away his audience as I hope I am not dissuading you. But that is why Paul took such pains to make it clear that this belief, this truth, is not negotiable nor to be treated as allegory. It is the reality at the core reason for our hope: hope in Jesus Christ risen from the dead, as we will be.
Returning to our original question, “What do we tell our neighbours?” we tell them the truth. It’s incredible. We hardly believe it ourselves, and yet, if this is not the Gospel we teach, the same one Paul is proclaiming to the Corinthian believers, then we are denying them the one and only hope in this world that comes from beyond human frailty and limitations. It’s not good salesmanship, but it is the truth, not for supporting theologies but for saving lives.
I believe a principal reason the church today is so frail and weather-beaten is our wish to seem credible and capable in our educated and sophisticated society. Our doctored leaders have a hard time upholding the status of their positions before their peers while professing something as incredulous as “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” as a substantial expectation beyond metaphor. This is a problem Paul doesn’t have as he states categorically, “The truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.”
We need today to leave the cemetery of hopelessness and proclaim not only the risen Christ but Jesus, dead and buried, raised by God with a new and eternal body as we and all from the beginning of time who have placed their hope and faith in God and His Son will also be raised to new life, with new, eternal bodies that will enjoy to fruits of God’s love, mercy and grace, forever. This is our story and this is our song, praising our Saviour all the day long (Fanny Crosby, Blessed Assurance, paraphrase).
Amen
