Preacher: Pastor Nathan Hosler, PhD

Date: March 31, 2024

Scripture: John 20:1-18, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Isaiah 25:6-9

February 14^th, the beginning of Lent, feels like a long time ago. Lent is the time often designated for preparation for this past week. If, however, you were like me, you probably lost sight of this at times over the past weeks. This past week was Holy Week. We gathered last Sunday and celebrated the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. We waved palm branches and shouted hosanna! (you can still find a few of the dried fronds floating around the sanctuary). On Thursday we celebrated Love Feast with the Arlington and University Park Church of the Brethren’s. Then Jesus’ crucifixion and death on Friday. And now….

[John 20:1-18]

What I notice in 1 Corinthians is that the Apostle is making a case. He is exhorting and explaining—providing evidence and even quasi-legal arguments for the fact of the resurrection. We may consider ourselves uniquely scientific and rational and feel that given all that we know about how this marvelously complex world operates, that we find it uniquely difficult to believe the unbelievability of the resurrection. However, apparently this is not new. Even 2000 years ago in a different time and place, the writer felt the need to back up his assertions.

The opening of chapter 15 is fascinating. The Apostle opines, “I want you to understand the good news”—which is then tied to the resurrection. The following verses then lay out why this is believable. What is interesting in the first sentences is that it is clear that the people to whom he is writing have already “received” and “stand” in this message. They aren’t first time hearers or on the fence. While they have already received and lived, the writer goes on to provide further backing. Additionally, he notes that this is the message “through which you are being saved.” Note the ongoing nature of this—are being saved.

The walking in the knowledge and belief in the living Jesus, the resurrection, is not a one-off and final acceptance but a journey.

Paul’s argument continues by using several arguments for the fact of the resurrection. These include (and I’m going to list them somewhat out of order). First, a lot of people saw Jesus—specifically 500 hundred. Not a rumor of two or three but a whole bunch—500 hundred! Not only this but some of them are still alive so the reader in Corinth could go talk to them.

Secondly, he appeared to Cephas, and then the twelve. This is what I would call legal or a quasi-legal argument. In the Gospel of John, it is clearly a woman, Mary Magdalene, who first discovers the empty tomb, then she talks to the angels who announce, and then she meets Jesus who looks like a gardener. Jesus refers to her by name and then she goes to announce Jesus’ resurrection to the men-disciples. A definite first Apostle. The other disciples need to wait the full day, cowering in fear, until Jesus shows up to them.

Clearly this woman-disciple, Mary Magdalene, is the first Apostle. It is quite possible that Paul is writing her out of the story. It is also the case that the written account of the Gospel of John, at least in this form, was written several decades after 1 Corinthians—so maybe he didn’t know? But beyond either of these, in a patriarchal context, her witness, in legal-court sense was not valid/as valid. This is why I call this a quasi-legal argument. He is calling on witnesses that would have been deemed legitimate witnesses in a courtroom.

Thirdly, Paul references his personal transformative experience of meeting the risen Jesus. Paul had been a zealous persecutor of the followers of Jesus, he then met Jesus in a vision, and had radical reorientation in following and proclaiming Jesus the risen. He draws on this as evidence and rationale for Jesus’ resurrection.  

And fourthly (which is actually the first, he refers to the scriptural witness. He refers back to the common shared authoritative text. He asserts:

“that Jesus died for our sins accordance with the scriptures.” and

“he was buried and raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.”

The Apostle Paul asserts that Jesus rose, in “accordance with the scriptures.” If I were to say “accordance with the scriptures,” most likely you would imagine, and I would be meaning, the Gospel passage we read this morning or perhaps the Epistles—scriptures in the second part of the Christian Bible which refer directly to Jesus. Paul, however, is not referring to these passages because they were only just being written and entering into the process of regarding them as “scriptures.” This process becoming formalized only sometime later.

Paul and the early Church clearly discerned the witness, reference, allusion, and prophecies of their scriptures, what we variously call the Hebrew scriptures or Old Testament, as pointing to Jesus. The earliest Christians, part of the Jewish people, clearly saw Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah—the Savior for whom they had been yearning.

So when we read in Isaiah—–

⁶ On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
    of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
⁷ And he will destroy on this mountain
    the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
    the covering that is spread over all nations;
⁸     he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
    and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
    for the Lord has spoken.
⁹ It will be said on that day,
    “See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
    This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Jesus, the Risen Christ, is seen as the fulfillment of this vision. When in 1 Corinthians we read “o death where is your victory….”

We hear strains of Isaiah,

⁷ And he will destroy on this mountain
    the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
    the covering that is spread over all nations;
⁸     he will swallow up death forever.

(1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 54-55)

²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.^[d] 21 For since death came through a human, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human, ²² for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. ²³ But each in its own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. ²⁴ Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. ²⁵ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 

⁵⁴ When this perishable body puts on imperishability and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”

Earlier this week was Jesus’s last supper with his disciples. After washing their feet, he took the bread and cup saying– I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. This is in the Gospel of Luke chapter 22.

In the Sermon on the Mount, early in the Gospel of Mathew chapter 6 Jesus taught his listeners to pray saying,    

 May your kingdom come.
    May your will be done
        on earth as it is in heaven.

Indeed the “Kingdom of God,”—what some have taken to calling the Kin-dom of God—was a central theme of Jesus. That all things would be reconciled to, in, and through Christ. That the original state of shalom would again be reality.

With Christ’s resurrection—the last enemy, death, has been defeated.

This is reality! A glorious reality!

But I pause. I pause and imagine [….] this doesn’t always feel like reality. We don’t always (ever?) see this reality. What world do you live in?!

Oh! What must we do to feel like this is a reality?! To truly live this reality!? The cry echoing the question in scripture—what must I do to inherit eternal life?

On one hand death overcome—of this perhaps catching glimpses. Feeling the Holy Spirit move. Seeing the resurrection lived by faithful disciples around us. On the other hand –well, not exactly as we might expect or hope.

But then I wonder. What does it mean to follow Jesus? What does it mean to glimpse, catch hold of, be buoyed up by the risen Christ? To taste salvation?!

In 1 Corinthians 15, we heard a bit of Paul’s experience and turning. In the book of Acts we find a more detailed account. The Apostle Paul was originally named Saul. He was a highly trained and enthusiastic enforcer of correct religious practice. (read hard-liner zealot).  When the people who followed the crucified and humiliated Rabbi from Galilee began to grow in strength and number claiming he had risen, Saul set out to crush this religious and political aberration.

In Acts 9 we read,

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ³ Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” ⁵ He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶ But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” ⁷ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing;^[a] so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.

From this visionary experience, Saul became Paul, the Apostle and the fearless spreader of the Gospel.

At many times and in many ways Christians have felt that there should be a single moment when a person has a definite experience, perhaps prays a particular prayer, and this is often accompanied by a great deal of certainty. When I was about 8 years old, I made such a confession of faith and after some preparation classes was baptized.

 Continuing in the church through high school, and uncertain what exactly to do with my life, I joined a year-long volunteer and mission program that took me to Baltimore for several months and then to Germany for some months and then back to Baltimore. During these 15 months, I experienced a call to ministry that felt like an epiphany.

 Realizing this call and that I actually really liked to study, I entered a Bible College in Chicago. Again, a transformative experience. Until it felt like I fell apart. The spiritual, intellectual, and theological chasm seemed bottomless. I didn’t know which way was up or what to do. For quite some, perhaps the only theological certainty I could articulate was—Jesus matters. Jesus.

There was never a bright light or a sudden certainty after this. I didn’t somehow “get over” the doubts, fear, or anger. There was no clear process. I could say—Jesus mattered. And so began and continues a slow and ongoing walk back to and with Jesus.

Christ is Risen. Hallelujah.

I recount this because I imagine that your journey might be more like mine than Paul’s. And though we may be tentative at times, caught in despair or uncertainty, we may be able to proclaim, with all of creation—in the face of all that is wrong, of genocide, of the mundane worries of life—Hallelujah. Christ is Risen. Having been raised, Christ has destroyed death.

God has destroyed the,

shroud that is cast over all peoples,
    the covering that is spread over all nations;

 [God][has] swallow[ed] up death forever.

Christ is Risen. Hallelujah.

(1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Isaiah 25:6-9)