The Meaning of All History Rests on This

Sermon for the Berryville Alliance of Churches Sunrise Service

8:00 A.M., April 24, 2011

Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 118:1, 10-29;

John 20:1-18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-19

I am going to tell you about Abram Jones. If you happen to know an Abram Jones, this is not the same one. The reason I know that he is not the same one is that this Abram exists only in my own mind. Abram had gone to Sunday school as a child, but along the way through adolescence and young adulthood he had gradually assembled a case from the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the leading news magazines, some Internet surfing, plus a New Testament survey course in college that was taught by an atheist, that the death and resurrection of Jesus was simply a variant on common ancient myth about spring rebirth with no connection to historical reality. Based on this rather flimsy and easily discredited theory, Abram announced that he was no longer a Christian, but an existentialist. Now for some people the existentialist philosophy has specific content, but for Abram, it was just his way of saying that he would make up whatever meanings he wanted for his life as he went along, and it would save him a lot of time and trouble and money on church activities, and a lot of fretting about whether he was sinning or not.

But here are some well-supported historical facts that Abram did not consider:

1. Jesus was unmistakably dead when he was taken down from the cross on Friday afternoon. Abram could have read a pretty convincing case for that, in full medical detail, in an old Journal of the American Medical Association article posted all over the Internet. Jesus really died on the cross.

2. According to the Scriptures, when the reign of God broke through early on Sunday morning, with a great earthquake and shining angels, an angel of the Lord rolled back the stone that had been sealed over the entrance to the tomb and then sat upon the stone. The guards who had been assigned to guard the tomb trembled and became as dead men, presumably passing out from fear. The women, a considerable collection of them who had followed Jesus from Galilee and of whom only a few are named, came to the tomb to complete the anointing of the body of Jesus, an anointing that had been begun by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus before the arrival of the Sabbath at sundown Friday. The women as they arrived at the tomb found an extraordinary scene and a message from the leading angel which first terrified them into silence, but then, apparently gathering their courage, they carried the message to the inner core of eleven disciples who did not believe them. Peter and John ran to the tomb and found it as the women had said. This caused them to believe something, although we are not told what they believed at that point, perhaps only that the tomb was empty. But that is a significant piece of evidence in itself. The account does not appear to be contrived because a contrived story in that culture would not have started with women witnesses and scared and skeptical disciples.

3. The Scriptures give more attention to the appearances of the risen Jesus: first to Mary Magdalene, then to Cleopas and another unnamed follower, then to the eleven, repeated times, both in Jerusalem and back in Galilee, then to more than 500 at one time, most of whom were still alive 20—25 years later when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, then to Jesus’ brother James and presumably to his other brothers who had not been believers during Jesus’ earthly ministry, and finally in a different manner, years after his ascension, to Paul on the Damascus Road. The resurrection appearances taken together affirm that Jesus’ resurrection body is at once physical and yet not limited by the laws of physics. It is a new kind of body. He can walk, talk, eat, even cook breakfast, allow himself to be touched in his wounds from the cross, but he can also walk through walls and appear and disappear at will. This is a new kind of existence.

4. If that is not yet enough evidence, then consider this: these formerly fearful disciples who ran away when Jesus was arrested, who were still hiding behind locked doors at the time of his first resurrection appearances, began, within 50 days of the resurrection, to publicly proclaim that Jesus who had been crucified, was now the risen and exalted Christ, the Son of God, the Savior and Lord for all the world. These disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit, who came to those who believed, carried the gospel to the entire Mediterranean world and beyond, many becoming martyrs of the faith in the process. Tradition says that all the original eleven were martyred, with John being the last to die in exile on Patmos, perhaps the only one to die in old age. The message of the risen Jesus was not for them the path to political power or worldly wealth. There was no earthly reason for them to risk their lives repeatedly over the years unless they were utterly convinced that Jesus was risen from the dead.

It has been claimed with some justification that we have better evidence for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ than for any other ancient event. That is as it must be, for no other event in history so challenges ordinary human reasoning. What would be different for Abram Jones if he knew evidence for the resurrection?

If Abram was convinced by the evidence that Jesus was indeed crucified to death and then raised from the dead in a new kind of physical body, then the following things are also true:

1. God is absolute sovereign of the universe, reigning even over death. Abram would acknowledge God’s rule over his life.

2. God has placed the divine stamp of certification on Jesus as the one-of-a-kind Son of God, Messiah, Lord, and Savior. Abram would deal with the utter uniqueness of Jesus Christ by becoming his disciple.

3. God has planned a future new heaven and new earth where those whom Jesus recognizes as living in him will share resurrection bodies like his and share his reign over a perfected creation in which death and grief and strife will be no more. Abram would know that death is not the last word on our lives, that there is solid reason to hope for more and better.

4. Our goal for life beyond death is not to slip away from the material realm into an ethereal realm where we float on the clouds and play harps, but to be transformed for a realm that is at once material and spiritual, that is as material and spiritual as God planned life to be before there were sin and death, purified and durable material existence infused with the life of God. Abram would have a solid goal for his life both now and beyond death.

5. The meaning of our present lives is to live even now as reborn children of God in God’s inbreaking kingdom. Our lives are given over to proclaiming, demonstrating, and celebrating the reign of God as we represent his mercy, grace, compassion, longsuffering, and his abundant steadfast love and faithfulness, cooperating with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit produces in ever greater degrees the fruitof Christ-like living in us. In this way, our character and preferences are being pre-shaped for the future new heaven and new earth, and they are helping others believe our message about our good and sovereign Creator, our loving Lord and Savior. Abram would have guidelines that would help him live now in a way that is fitting to the future that has been promised.

In short, Abram would have resources of hope, faith, love, purpose, courage, and deep joy that he has not even imagined as possible.

Although Abram Jones had never given the matter much thought, he bears the name of a major Bible character. The biblical Abram was, late in life, called by God to a journey of faith. As he neared the fulfillment of his journey and was about to pass the milestone that would bring all the promises of God for him into place, God changed his name to Abraham, meaning “father of multitudes,” starting from one embryonic Isaac. Eventually from one man, and him as good as dead, came not only all the physical offspring of Isaac and his son Jacob/Israel, but also the spiritual offspring who came through the much later offspring Jesus. As Paul writes, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”

If Abram jones believes that Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead, he might need to change his name and become Abraham Jones to point to the bigger destiny of which he is now a part. For the promises to the original Abram/Abraham lives on. In Christ believers may have many spiritual offspring. May it be so.

All that, the meaning of all history and of your life and mine, rests on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Don’t let anyone take the bigness of that meaning away from you.