This is Not Fake News!
1 Corinthians 15:1-19
The world today is suffering from an epidemic of “fake news” today. Fake news is the product of post-modern thinking in which each individuals interpretation is equally valid. Therefore, “fake news” can be found all over social media. There was fake new in the past. I can remember reading my mother’s copies of the National enquirer forty years ago. It had stories like “57 year-old mother gives birth to space alien twins” the old storyteller and his yarns are an older form of “fake news”. But everyone knew that it was fake. We would chuckle and go on. We knew we were being humbugged.
This is not the case today. Serious and thoughtful journalism has been replaced by propaganda because they are owned by the elite who have political opinions. It used to be that there was at least an appearance of propriety and balance. But now it is no more than buffoonery. Even the National Enquirer is more likely to be believed.
I would suppose that the definition of fake news in this Postmodern world is any interpretation of events which differs from mine. The purpose of this slanted news is to deceive and poison the minds of the hearers. Fake new leads to division and disunity. Trust breaks down, and hate and intolerance increases. When we hear an opposing viewpoint, we stuff our ears with our fingers and go off in a mad rush. Of course this isn’t new. This is what those at Stephen’s trial did when they rushed out to stone him.
In this morning’s text, we see Paul dealing with “fake news” in the church. Even though the church in Corinth had a lot of behavioral problems and divisions which Paul had to deal with, he seems to have saved chapter 15 until last because it was the most serious of them. A fake news report was circulating that there was no resurrection of the dead. As some of the believers a Corinth had already died, this stirred up great unrest in the church. The rising of this fake news was easy enough to understand. It was widely held in Greek society that the body was evil and the spirit and reason was good. Death meant that the soul was no longer imprisoned in the body and would return and reunite with the great spirit. So the idea of a bodily resurrection seemed scandalous to most of them.
Paul confronts this fake news with the true truth of God. He addresses this directly and clearly. He does this first by affirming the bodily resurrection. The New Testament also proclaims this. Jesus made Himself physically known to witnesses. They touched Him, heard Him, saw Him, ate and drank with them. This is the contribution of the gospels. To this Paul adds that Jesus appeared alive to many witnesses over a period of time. He appeared to Peter and the disciples. James, and even 500 people at once. They all saw and heard Him. And many were still alive and could be asked.
In reality, when we piece all of the evidence for the resurrection, it is very convincing. The tomb was empty. The Jews could have ended the movement right away by presenting the body of Jesus. The claim that the body was stolen from under the noses of Roman soldiers while they took the time and care to unwrap the bandages and fold the headpiece is incredulous. They would have taken the body, wrapping and all and unwound the clotted cloth in a safe place. The disciples who ran and were hiding in cowardly fear became emboldened and later preached publicly in the Temple when their own lives were in danger to do so. The sheer number of witnesses was such that it wasn’t the physiological delusion of a few overwrought with grief for their abandoning Jesus. The fact that women who could not testify in court were the first witnesses of the resurrection. The mention of Paul here of the resurrection accounts in such a short time after the event means that it wasn’t a legend created by the church in the second or third century. Paul adds his own conversion as the final witness to the truth, a man who persecuted the church to the death. The Holy Spirit also confirms the resurrection in believers. Signs and wonders followed the Apostles. What more evidence could be presented about the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The “true news” of Jesus has implications. What does that mean for us. Well Paul in a similar situation in Thessalonica tells us the dead in Christ have not perished. It presents the promise of our resurrection. Jesus who was raised on the feast day of Firstfruits is the guarantee of our resurrection.
Paul isn’t content to point out the implications of the truth, something he will do later on in the chapter. He is also interested in thoroughly discrediting the false news which denied the resurrection. Without the resurrection of the dead, Jesus would still be dead, the Corinthians still dead in sins and under the judgment of God for believing a lie. All of the ridicule and persecution they had undergone would be for nothing. Christianity would be no more than a religion that makes people miserable. Better to eat, drink, and be merry today if tomorrow we die. In other words, it would be far better to be an Epicurean and enjoy the good things of life in moderation and avoid trouble. This is the view of the world today. The Grass Roots put it this way in a song in the 1970’s: “Nah, Nah. Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah, live for today; and don’t worry about tomorrow.”
But if the Epicurean view as well as all other philosophies are fake news, then the opposite is true for the “true news” of Christianity. Suffering is inevitable in this world. Paul is pretty clear elsewhere that everyone who tries to live a godly life in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. The world will try to make the life of the Christian one of misery. But the Christian does not live for today. Instead it lives for a glorious tomorrow, today. We don’t worry about the day at hand or even the morrow because our future is secure in Jesus Christ. The Epicurean had to be careful not to indulge in pleasure too much because he might suffer pain tomorrow for it. He had to temper pleasure. The Hedonist lived every moment for pleasure in spite of the consequences. The Stoic accepted his fate with a stiff upper lip without any hope of joy tomorrow. There are all kinds of fake philosophies that Paul in Colossians says spoil and ruin people.
Now for some really sobering news. The resurrection also means that Christ will judge the world. In Acts 17, this is when the Stoics and Epicureans of Mars Hill started to mock him. “Resurrection, indeed! There better not be a resurrection, because if there is, it means there is a personal and infinite God who hands out rewards and punishments. They shut their ears. Had they not, they would have heard about God’s offer of grace and reconciliation in Jesus Christ.
Like the world of Paul’s day, our world today hopes that death is the end of all things and there is no God. This is of course a most foolish view. They want to hear fake news. They want to believe a lie and be damned. It does not care which lie it hears. There can be many versions of a lie but only one version of the truth. The devil shuts their ears and leads their eyes astray. He does not want people to know the true news of God who sent His Son to die on a cross for our sins. He died in our place. This means we who believe shall one day stand in His presence. The privations and scorn brought upon us as Christians will be worth it all. The world only hopes that death ends it all. This means that their current life is meaningless. Does it matter how high in life you rise or how low you go if so quickly the ultimate reality of death is around the corner. Even the fake alternative of the world leads to a life of utter despair which will be followed by the shock of standing before the judgment throne of God.
Meanwhile the Christian has joy, even in the tribulations of this life. It seems the Christians should be the most miserable of people have joy and light in the city of God. We live as the truly free. Those who seek freedom in autonomy from God are the ones who suffer from anxiety and depression.
We must not let fake news of the world philosophies creep into the church and make us subject to the chains of misery caused by believing fake news. Preachers need to be bold in proclaiming the resurrection of the body and be bold in confronting error. We have the only message of hope.
