1 Cor. 15:12-20: Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. 17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. 19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
Several years ago at a passion play an incident took place during Jesus carrying the cross. A man in the audience was heckling the character playing Jesus, throwing out jeers, taunts and dares. Finally the character could no longer tolerate the heckler, he dropped the cross and went over and punched out the man. The director was aghast and after the play pulled the actor aside and told him in no uncertain terms was he ever to do that again. But the next night the same heckler was back and again the same thing, Jesus this time had to be restrained. The director called the actor in and gave him an ultimatum of either quitting or keeping his composure. The young actor assured the director he would keep himself under control. The third night, the heckler was present again and taunted even stronger than the two previous nights. The man playing Jesus rose to his full stature, gritted his teeth and told the heckler, "I’ll see you right after the resurrection." (Mark Sutherlin)
In today’s scripture lesson, Paul was addressing a problem at the church in Corinth. It seems that some of them don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. Paul says in verse 12, "Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?" Some people in Corinth seem to believe that death is the end of life and there is nothing on the other side of death.
The city of Corinth was a metropolitan city and it was filled with many Roman and Greek intellectuals that found resurrection too hard to believe. For some Greek and Roman philosophers, that believes in the immortality of soul, the idea of the resurrection of bodies seemed unacceptable. Who wants to come back this body? It is such an encumbrance to come back in life into these bodies after seeing the sick bodies, dead bodies, raped bodies, tortured bodies, violated bodies.
Obviously, the Corinthian church was affected by this kind of thinking, so they thought the resurrection must be in our souls, or in spirits, not in bodies. Even in Judaism, there were Pharisees that believed in the resurrection of the dead on the final judgment day, and there were Sadducees that didn’t believe in resurrection at all.
A for Paul there was no reason for him to believe in Jesus Christ, in fact he went about persecuting the Christians, until one day he encountered the risen Christ face to face. To Paul, his entire faith in Christ was based on the resurrection of Christ, nothing more and nothing less. And there is a connection between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and our bodily resurrection one day.
So he says to the Corinthians, "You guys preached the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but you don’t believe the resurrection of the dead? This is not the good news that the apostles and I have been teaching you. You guys must believe Jesus resurrection was an unrelated miracle, that doesn’t have anything to do with us." To Paul, there is an inseparable connection between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and our own resurrection that is to come.
In the next verse he said, "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised;" See the good news Christ told him to proclaim is that whatever happened to Christ is something natural to human beings. If there is no resurrection of the dead, there would be no resurrection of Christ. In other words, whatever is possible in Christ is possible in us. The resurrection of Christ is the precursor to our own resurrection. Later it us the word "the First Fruit," indicating that Jesus is the first fruit and we are the following fruits.
And in the next verse, Paul asserted that, "and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain." He is saying that if there is no resurrection of the body, that there is no resurrection of Christ, and if there is no resurrection of Christ, there is no Christianity, period. Then he said, "We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised."
He said that we are basically telling lies when we tell people about the risen Christ but don’t believe we will be raised. You can hear the passion of Paul here; he seems to be quite angry and repeats the message several times. It shows how important this message is for him and it is the core of everything he is about.
There are three important messages for us from this Christian belief of the resurrection of the dead.
1. Realize "In the end, the beginning"
A lot of people look at the end of this life as the end, and we often talk about the second coming of Jesus as the end time, or the end of the world. No. The good news of the resurrection tells us that we are approaching the beginning of real life. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a glimpse the dawn and the morning is coming ahead of us. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is like a groundhog day that tells us that the spring is coming soon.
At the end of the Bible, the book or Revelations tells us that, "Look, I am making all things new." There will be a new heaven and new earth for you and me. It seems that when the risen Christ appeared to Paul, he must have told him that, "Paul, look at me, this is the future of you and all human beings in the world. God and tell people the good news."
"If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." v. 19. Paul is saying that those Christians that have hopes in Christ only in this life deny themselves of a great joy and blessings. They will enter heaven at the end, but they will miss the quality of life that is enjoyed by those who have hope beyond this life.
2) Love life and give life
Not only your past shaped who you are today, but also your future. Those people who believe in the resurrection of the body, those believe the new heaven and new earth is coming, they love life and give life. All the world changers in the history were able to love life and give life because of they are empowered by the hope that comes from the future. Those believe in the new heaven and new earth that is about to come tend to start behaving the future in the present. They start building the new heaven and new earth now. They pray, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Paul says, "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died." Jesus being the first fruit means you and I are the rest of fruit to come. In order to understand the power of resurrection, we need to understand the power of death.
Jurgen Moltmann, spoke at the Trinity Church of New York City last week. He said, "Death is not only the natural end of the finite life, but it is a very destructive power which towers up into the personal, social and creaturely life. The powers of death are oppression, exploitation, sickness and alienation. We have before our eyes the pictures of the starving children of the third world, and the exposed bodies the street children in the slums of the big cities. We know the number of those suffering from AIDS in black Africa. We know about the raped women and the murder men in Bosnia, and the daily massacres in Iraq. But, we also have seen the superfluous life without work, without meaning of life before our own doors, even in our own families and neighborhoods. Death is in no way just a fate that we have to accept, but a power hostile to life against which one must live and fight. Love against the power of death means loving life, sharing life, establishing life, and making life once again worth living."
The Song of Songs, 8:6 says, "for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame." Love is the instrument God has given us to overcome the power of death. Your belief in the power of resurrection and that the power of life will one day overcome death all together will spill over to your life today and shape your life to become a life giver. Living against death is the natural outcome of someone who is loved by God and able to love others.
The Taliban leader Muller Omar said, "Your people love life, our people love death." Christians love life, not death. We also love the life of the terrorists, not their death.
How about Buddhism? A Buddhist may say, "Your people are optimists, we are pessimists." They believe human suffering is caused by being caught in this cycle of reincarnation and being alive is suffering. To get out of this cycle of reincarnation is to attain nirvana, and nirvana means nothingness. Only in nothingness there is absolute peace. That means their ultimate goal is to disappear from this universe for eternity. But that is exactly the opposite of Christ’s teaching which is that our ultimate destination is to become fully alive.
To love live and give life also involves telling this good news to other people so that they also can life a fuller life with the same hope you have. So be the life lover and life giver. Be the one that breaks down the walls raised by the power of death, the racial walls, social walls, class walls, political walls, etc.
Next week, we will go on the cruise with the kids. As the day comes closer to that trip, the attitudes and excitement of the kids become more like someone who will be on that trip. In the same way, as the day comes closer for you and I to be in the Kingdom of God, the new heaven and new earth, where God will wipe out our tears and wash away our pains, live today like someone who is going to be there! May God bless all of you, Amen.
