Resurrection of Jesus
For the April 2012 Synchroblog, we are exploring the question,“What if the resurrection is a lie?”
Make no mistake, we are not challenging the historical fact of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. We firmly believe in the historical reality of the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of Jesus.
But we also know that soon after the resurrection of Jesus, Christians were accused of inventing this story. Some critics claimed that Jesus never died. Others said that the apostles stole the body of Jesus from the grave. Today, there are countless millions of people who still believe that the resurrection is a hoax.
Here is a list of bloggers who contributed to this month’s Synchroblog. If you participated, please include this list of links on your blog!
- Marta – On Faith Seeking Understanding, Truth, and Theology
- Carol Kuniholm – Risen Indeed? The Hermeneutic Community
- Tim Nichols – How Would Life be Different if Jesus did not Rise?
- Glenn – Kingdom Come or Kingdom Now?
- Sonja Andrews – The Resurrection and the Life
- Josh Morgan – The Role of the Resurrection
- Abbie Watters – What if the Resurrection were a lie?
- Minnow – Resurrection Impact
- Leah – Resurrection – Or Not!
- Hey Sonnie – The Resurrection Hoax
- Liz Dyer – The Resurrection I Firmly Believe In
- Ellen Haroutunian – Is There a Christianity Without the Resurrection?
- Jeannette Altes – What if…
- Christine Sine – If the Resurrection did not happen, how would the world be different?
- KW Leslie – Supposing Jesus is Dead
- Travis Mamone – If the Resurrection was a Hoax
- Kathy Escobar – Jenga Faith
- Jeremy Myers – What if Jesus Did not Rise?
Stained glass window
This post is my contribution to the April synchroblog The Resurrection Hoax.
If the resurrection did not happen, how would the world be different? How would I be different? Would it matter? I have spent a lot of time over the last few days thinking about these questions.
In some ways it is hard for me to conceive of a life which does not revolve around my belief in the resurrection of Jesus. I became a Christian as a teenager, entered medical school because of that decision and then went into medical missions because I believed that was what God wanted me to do with my life. Resurrection living is part of the fabric of my being. It gets me up in the morning, it inspires my day and it sets my priorities in all that I do.
I think resurrection life is part of the fabric of all humankind whether we believe in Jesus or not. The ways of God are written on our hearts. Without the resurrection there is no life in our world at all. Every act of kindness, every gesture of love, every tear of compassion proclaims that Jesus resurrection life is active in our world, transforming what is broken into wholeness, what is captive into freedom, what is despised into love.
Would my decisions have been different if I did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus? Some would have been, others would not. Fundamentally what would have been different is the motivation for my life. Belief in the resurrection has inspired me to be concerned for others and not just myself, that I suspect is something that I know does not come from me but from God.
Would the world be different if the resurrection did not happen? I like to think so. The resurrection gives us love and compassion. It gives us joy and peace, and it places within us an ache for the hurting and the forgotten, for the poor and the suffering. And more than anything it gives us hope that one day God’s dream for a restored world of peace and love and abundance and wholeness will come into being. Without the resurrection I am not sure that these things would ever be attainable.
Easter Morning - He Qi
Some of you may have noticed that I have not been posting much in the last few days. I have been laid low with one of the worst cases of flu I have had for a long time. Definitely ready for a season of resurrection. The fact that Seattle’s weather has been bursting with warmth and sunlight has certainly helped. And the daffodils, tulips and flowering shrubs are magnificent. The spirit of resurrection is definitely in the air.
Much of my reflections in the last couple of days have revolved not around Easter Sunday but around Easter Saturday. It has never really occurred to me before that this day was the Sabbath, the day that all Jewish people saw as a celebration of God’s new order. Yet for Christ’s followers there would have been no celebration that Easter Saturday. Their expectations of a new kingdom in which God’s people reigned triumphantly had been shattered. Their hope for the restoration of Israel had not become a reality.
What was very hard for Christ’s followers to realize is that God was doing something totally new. They were expecting restoration of the old order of things. God was bringing resurrection and a totally new order into being. In some ways the disciples still hankered after the fleshpots of Egypt. They were hoping for the establishment of an kingdom that looked very much like the roman empire only with them in power. God was bringing a totally new kingdom into being – a kingdom in which justice and righteousness reigns, in which the poor are fed and the captives set free, in which the sick are healed and abundance comes for all people.
How often do I miss the ways of God because I am looking for restoration of the old rather than resurrection of something totally new? How often do I cling to old expectations and struggle to embrace the new ways of God? In some ways I feel that our whole world is in this situation at the moment. The economic and political turmoil of these last few years are giving birth to something new but we are still hoping to go back to the old. And unfortunately much of the new is not good news for those who really need to see a new world of justice and abundance come either.
In the last few years the gap between the richest and poorest people has grown in most wealthy countries, but particularly in the U.S. In some ways even more concerning, the education gap has also grown meaning that poor people are less and less likely to be able to move out of poverty. we see the same trends in health too and those who live in communities of poverty in the US and UK can expect to live 10 years less than their more wealthy neighbours.
So my question this is Easter season is not so much how will I view the resurrection but how will I enable others to enter into resurrection life? The celebrations of the Sabbath day called for rest and provision for all – people and animals alike – because this was seen as a preview of God’s coming world in which all creation would be provided for. We are still a long way from that day. What will we do in this season of resurrection to help bring it into being?
The following list is the entire series of our guest posts for the Lenten Series 2012. Enjoy!
U2′s Easter Anthem Window in the Skies – post by Lee Wyatt
Thin Space – A Reflection by Paula Mitchell
Depression and the Living God – Lenten Series
Lent, again – By Jim Schmotzer
Lenting Fasting; Easter Feasting – By Rachel Stone
Content with Our Daily Bread, But Thirsty for Tomorrow’s Wine…by tracy Dickerson
Re-Placing Holy Week – towards A Public + Local Liturgy by Brandon Rhodes
Hunger – By Melanie Clark Pullen
Longing For Green Pastures – A Lenten Reflection by Kimberlee Conway Ireton
The Long Strange Journey of Lent is Almost Over – John Leech
Its Time To Go Back to the Desert – A Reflection by Martha Hopler
Hungering and Thirsting After Righteousness – By Thomas Turner
Gil, Lent, and Ordinary Time – By Gil George
Identity, Intimacy, and Impact – Part 2
Identity, Intimacy, and Impact – Part 1 – By AnaYelsi Sanchez
Creating Space, Seeing Truth – By James Prescott
L’église est fermée — By Greg Valerio
Justice: What Loves Look Like in Public – by Kathy Escobar
Where are We Following Jesus To?
Imagining the Lectionary: Wild and unrelenting – By Dave Perry
Walk On – U2′s Lenten Anthem
What Do We Hunger and Thirst For? – By Sean Gladding
A Lenten Reflection – By Steve Kimes
Christian Discipleship: Lent Is A Time To Receive – By Theresa Froehlich
Locked In, But Not Locked Out — By Joy Wilson
What Do We Hunger & Thirst For? By Sue Duby
A Lifestyle of Enough by Eugene Cho
Hungering and Thirsting for God by Steve Wickham
Ash Wednesday – Mourning the Death Sin Has Caused in Our Lives
This morning’s post in the series Easter is Coming: What Do We Hunger and Thirst For? was written by an anonymous contributor.
—
I don’t hunger and thirst for much. I just hunger and thirst to escape depression. There,
I’ve said it. But I’m not able to add my name to this statement. I need to be anonymous.
I am a middle-aged pastor of a suburban congregation of around 150-160. Every week I
stand and declare that Jesus forgives our sins and restores us to life. Yet I am bound by
pain which reaches back into my infant past, pain that I have only just become aware of
through therapy, pain that I have not yet faced—and fear to face even now.
I have grown up being driven to ‘repair’ the world, to ‘make a difference’, trying to make it
better so that others don’t suffer the way I do. I fear I have mixed that up with what it
means to be a Christian, and to be a pastor. When I fail, there is a kind of voice within my
my therapist calls the ‘savage god’ who accuses me of being—wait for it—less than
perfect. I have confused that voice with the Living God. Sometimes the only thing that
protects me from suicidal thoughts is a sense of compassion I can find within myself for
those with whom I could be rightfully angry with. I would dearly like to find ‘rest for my
soul’.
I see a therapist several times a week. I take antidepressants at the maximum dose. I
pray. I believe. I love my congregation, and I have the good fortune to pastor a supportive,
wonderful community. The people know I suffer with depression, because I’ve spoken
about it from the pulpit. It seemed important for me to do so to help fellow-sufferers who
felt shame for their illness. Yet only a few know how much I suffer; I want to protect the
congregation. I want them to know the freedom that is theirs in Christ. In fact, when I lead
worship I do feel like the burden is lifted for a while. I find that I can step outside the
constrictions of the pain I feel and be with the people. I don’t mean that I’m overly
demonstrative, just that I know that inner freedom for a time and my smile is genuine.
I don’t think I’m living a lie. My problem isn’t authenticity, it’s just pain that has dogged me
since the nursery.
I’m sure there will be others posting in this series who want justice and peace for all. So do
I, and so does my community. I want the kingdom of God to come. I know it is here now, in
the midst of my pain, our pain. I know that in Bonhoeffer’s great words, ‘only a suffering
God can help’ and I take comfort in that. I know Christ’s strength is in my weakness. I just
want to feel it all the way through.
This Lent, I expect to put one foot in front of the other and walk towards Holy Week and
the Triduum. I rejoice at the destination of the Empty Tomb. But I fear there’s still quite a bit
of me mouldering in that tomb, and I hunger and thirst for it to live.
Skeleton cross from Stations of the Cross Cityside Baptist 2005
Today we walk with Christ in the dark shadow of the cross,
Knowing we have weighed him down,
Our burdens crushed his shoulders,
His suffering is for us,
For us he willingly endured death.
Let us trust in God alone,
And walk the way of the cross together,
Let us move forward without fear into God’s eternal purposes.
Then we will never know disgrace,
And we will learn to praise our God who never abandons us.
In the midst of grief and despair,
Let us see that without darkness nothing is birthed,
Without light nothing will blossom and flower.
May we sense Easter springtime coming,
Death’s dark and overwhelming night will give way to resurrection life.
Let us throw off our grave clothes,
And all the weights that hold us down,
Looking and listening for signs of resurrection life,
Let us take on the life of the one who raised Christ from the dead.
And respond to the Spirit of God who lives within us.
(Silence)
Lord have mercy,
When we stand in the shadow of the cross.
Christ have mercy,
When we kneel with repentant hearts.
Lord have mercy,
And shine your resurrection light on us.
Read John 18:1 – 19:42
God as we walk through this day may we remember,
Beyond sin there is love inexhaustible,
Beyond death there is life unimaginable,
Beyond brokenness there is forgiveness incomprehensible,
Beyond betrayal there is grace poured out eternally,
May we remember and give thanks for the wonder of your love.
Each year I also post resources for Holy Week. These were last updated in 2014
Resources for Maundy Thursday:
Resources for Celebrating Holy Week With Kids:
You may also like to look at prayers I have written for Good Friday in previous years
The traditional hymn for Palm Sunday is All Glory Laud and Honor. I love to parade around the church waving palm fronds and singing these beautiful words. I thought that those of you who are unfamiliar with this hymn might appreciate this version with the lyrics provided. And for those of us that are familiar with it there is never any harm in getting a little practice.
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