NR 27-03-05
Mt 28:1-10: A post Resurrection story of Jesus
Story: On Maundy Thursday (24th March 2005) there was an article in the Daily Telegraph which stated:
“Less than half of Britons know why Christians celebrate Easter, according to new research. Only 48 per cent of adults questioned for a survey were aware that the festival marks the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
About 40 per cent were able to name Judas Iscariot as the man who betrayed Jesus, while a quarter recognised the name of Dr Rowan Williams as the Archbishop of Canterbury, and only eight per cent knew that Karol Wojtyla is Pope John Paul II.
The poll, commissioned by Reader’s Digest, showed that 64 per cent believe in God and 58 per cent in an afterlife. Thursday 24th March 2005 Daily Telegraph (http://www.opinion.telegraph. co.uk/news main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005 /03/23/neast23.xml)
The majority of people still call themselves Christian, at least in a loose sense.
In New Romney for example the last published Government statistics show 77.7% who claim to be Christian.
Yet we are woefully ignorant - as a country - of the meaning of Easter
And yet, the Resurrection of Jesus - which we celebrate at Easter - is a major pillar of our faith
Every Sunday we profess our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead when we say the words of the Creed:
“ I believe ..….in Jesus Christ,
his only Son our Lord who was
Conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead and buried
He descended into Hell;
The third day he rose again from the dead”
(The Apostles Prayer - BCP)
Why is the Resurrection important to the Christian faith?
Because it is the reason that the Church has grown from a “backwater sect” of Judaism to the major world religion.
As Professor Charlie Moule, the famous NT theologian once said:
"the birth and rapid rise of the Christian Church ... remains an unsolved enigma for any historian who refuses to take seriously the only explanation offered by the church itself - the resurrection." (C.F.D. Moule, The Phenomenon of the New Testament).
Because without it – our faith is a waste of time .
St. Paul put it like this:
“..if Christ has not been raised from the dead, your faith is futile” (I Cor. 15: 17)
With such a ridiculous claim, have you ever stopped to consider the question:
“How on earth did Christianity ever
get off the ground?”
What do I mean?
There are a number of logical reasons why Christianity should never have got off the ground?
1. Jesus’ background
Firstly, its founder, Jesus of Nazareth was an obscure carpenter from a back woods of the Roman Empire - Israel. He wasn’t even a priest or a civil dignitary or a general.
He didn’t come from the one big city in Israel -Jerusalem, but from what the Jews themselves considered “hill billy country” – Nazareth in Galilee.
In those days if you wanted to make an impact on the world’s stage – the conventional wisdom was that you had to go and live in Rome, Athens or Alexandria.
No one wanting to make a name for himself would consider spending time in Jerusalem, let alone Galilee
2. Political and Religious support
(Jesus): The “Good and the Great” in Israel did not flock to his gospel, during his lifetime.
In fact quite the reverse. They rejected his message.
Only the common people took him to heart – and at the end they deserted him.
(Mohammed): In contrast when the founder of Islam, Mohammed died, he left an empire and a powerful army in place to defend it.
(Buddha). By the time Buddha had died, he had enlisted the nobility of Nepal in his cause.
3. Short term ministry
(Jesus): Jesus only ministered for three and a half short years.
(Mohammed)When Mohammed died, he had ministered close on 40 years and had left a book – “The Koran”.
(Buddha). When the Buddha died he too had taught for many years and left his “Writings”.
(Jesus:) Jesus himself wrote nothing and at the time of his death, none of the New Testament books had been written. Unlike Mohammed - who commanded a mighty army until his death, Jesus didn’t even hold a civic office.
4. His death
(Jesus): Jesus was put on trial on trumped up charges and crucified – an event we remember each year on Good Friday. His followers fled and left him to it.
They fled back to Galilee and that should have been the end of it.
(Mohammed): In contrast when Mohammed died in 633 AD he was buried with great honour. And he had set up a state machinery to continue the religion he had founded
(Buddha). Buddha died in 483 BC and too was buried with great honour. And the Nepalese nobles propagated his teaching from then on.
In contrast to the Buddha and Mohammed, Jesus had all the hallmarks of a man who it wouldn’t take too long to forget.
Now conventional wisdom would say that this is not a way to start a world religion.
5. The resurrection
And then - to top it all – his disciples made the ridiculous claim – which Jesus had risen from the dead.
Yet the New Testament records 12 different appearances of Jesus
1. To Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre alone. This is recorded at length only by John in his Gospel (Jn 20:11-18)
2. To certain women, "the other Mary," Salome, Joanna, and others, as they returned from the sepulchre as recorded in our Gospel reading this morning.
3. To Simon Peter alone on the day of the resurrection. (See Lk 24:34)
4. To the two disciples on the way to Emmaus on the day of the resurrection, (recorded in Lk 24:13-35).
5. To the ten disciples in Jerusalem (where Thomas was absent) in Jn 20:19-24.
6. To the ten disciples again and Thomas at Jerusalem in Jn 20:26-28.
7. To the disciples when fishing at the Sea of Galilee in Jn 21:1-23.
8. To the eleven, and above 500 brethren at once, at an appointed place in Galilee as Paul records in 1 Cor. 15:6.
9. To James, the brother of Jesus but under what circumstances we are not informed in 1 Cor. 15:7.
10. To the apostles immediately before the ascension. They accompanied him from Jerusalem to Mount Olivet, and there they saw him ascend "till a cloud received him out of their sight" as described in Luke 24:50-52).
11. In addition to the above, we should also make mention of the resurrected Christ’s appearance to Paul on the Damascus road in Acts 9:3-9 and 17.
12. And it is implied in the words of Luke and Acts 1:3 that there may have been other appearances of which we have no record.
The New Testament banks heavily on the fact of the Resurrection.
Quote: One English House of Lords Judge, Lord Darling said this about the veracity, in his opinion, of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ:
” In its favour as living truth, there exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true “
When Jesus’ followers claimed- like Mary Magdalene in this morning’s gospel reading – why were they believed?
And they were not only believed but from then on Christianity grew exponentially.
The final nail in the coffin of Christianity should
have come when his disciples dared to suggest that Jesus had risen from the dead, after having been crucified and certified dead by the Roman authorities.
And yet it is a cornerstone of our faith – Strange isn’t it?
Let’s face it – no one in their right mind would MAKE UP such a ridiculous story about someone coming back from the dead.
And if they had - would they seriously have been prepared to die for it - as ten of the apostles and St. Paul did.
None of the adherents of the other world’s great religions has ever even suggested that their founder has risen from the dead.
Surely making such a claim was a short cut to oblivion. - Unless of course it really happened!
But it wasn’t just the disciples that made these claims.
6. Jesus’ own predictions about his Resurrection
Jesus himself made some very curious claims.
One of these was when he said: “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (Jn 11:25).
Jesus promised the thief on the Cross that he would be with him in paradise that day – senseless if there was no afterlife for Jesus.
And in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus predicted his death and resurrection when he said, on the night before his crucifixion:
"You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ’I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’ "But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee." (Mt 26:31,32)
Conclusion
St. Peter writing in his first epistle says the following:
“In his great mercy, (God) has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Why - because the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is key to our faith.
I would like to suggest to you this morning that Christianity is not just a set of good moral ethics, though it embraces them.
Christianity is not simply how we “worship God” though that is an important component of it.
Christianity is not about being a good person, though that should be a fruit of being a Christian.
What I would like to suggest to you this morning as that Christianity is about knowing the risen Christ personally
Many Christians today can vouch for the fact that they know a living Saviour.
The message of Easter is just this.
When Jesus made a tremendous claim when he said “I am the Resurrection and the Life”, the question is “Do you believe him”?
In his famous book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis made this statement,
"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said - would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or he would be the devil of hell.
You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.
But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."
So what do you think? Do you really believe that Jesus rose from the dead as millions of Christians over the centuries have claimed?
If Easter is going to mean anything to us this year may I ask the question:
Do you know the risen Christ in your own life?
