#38 Remembering the Resurrection

(I'm indebted to one of my seminary classmates for the idea for this post. Thanks, Mike!) I've been thinking a lot about Easter over the past few weeks. I've been preaching on some of Jesus' resurrection appearances and picking out music that goes along with those texts. I've been reflecting on what Jesus' resurrection means for our lives today and remembering previous discussions I've had and things I've read about the significance of Easter. I've noticed something peculiar. In my Christian experiences, we talk a lot more about Good Friday than Easter and spend a lot more time focusing on the cross than the empty tomb.  That seemed like it couldn't be true, but I've found that I know more songs in the Good Friday section of the hymnal than the Easter section. I can think of many more general songs that reference Jesus' death than His resurrection. When we summarize the gospel in sermons and conversations, I think we much more likely to mention how Jesus died for us than anything else.

Maybe this isn't everyone else's experience, but I definitely think it's true of my experiences. If we talk more about Jesus' death than resurrection, then I think we're making a mistake. Jesus' death is important. Don't get me wrong. We should never stop talking about how Jesus' crucifixion shows us God's love and secures our forgiveness. Jesus' death is absolutely necessary for our salvation. But so is Jesus' resurrection. Jesus' resurrection proves that Jesus has conquered all the powers of death and suffering and sin and evil. Jesus' resurrection shows us that God approves Jesus' death and all of Jesus' ministry before that. Jesus' work of saving us is finished. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, Jesus' resurrection is the heart of our faith. Jesus' resurrection is what really gives us hope. Without the resurrection, our faith is worthless. God's love, forgiveness, and faithfulness toward us are incredibly good, but without the promise of eternal life, we're not ultimately any better off as Christians. If we spend all of our time talking about Jesus' death, we run the risk of concluding that God is angry and simply looking for a sacrifice to satisfy His wrath. The resurrection helps us more clearly see God's love and His desire to save and restore us. (This works the other way, too: we need to remember the crucifixion so we don't forget that God cannot tolerate sin and our sins have a cost.) So here's my proposal: let's balance our references to Jesus' death and resurrection. Whenever possible, let's mention them together. This is how Jesus Himself spoke when He predicted His death to His disciples: He'd mention His resurrection right after His death. If do we need to talk about just one of the two for a little bit, let's make sure to talk about the other later on. (We also should talk more about Jesus' incarnation, ascension, and return, but we'll save that for another post. And in my Epiphany post I already mentioned how we shouldn't forget Jesus' life and ministry.) As we remember when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Amen!

Grace and peace,

BMH