No One Expected the Resurrection (Easter Sunday)

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is at the heart of the gospel and at Grace Chicago we often talk about the resurrection in this vein. Two examples: the theology of the resurrection comes up when we talk about the presence and work of the Holy Spirit and when we talk about the doctrine of salvation. Paul explains in Ephesians 1:20 that the same power that brought Jesus back from the dead is now at work in us and in our midst as the Holy Spirit brings the blessings of Christ's life into ours. In Romans 6:4b we find Paul talking about our inclusion in the resurrection of Jesus as the evidence and means by which God keeps our lives inextricably linked to and included in Jesus' story and life. So we see that very soon after Jesus is risen from the dead that a theology of his resurrection emerged, together with a theology of his life and death. Juxtaposed to this are the rather raw accounts of Jesus' resurrection in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. As N.T. Wright and others point out these accounts are neither adorned with theological reflection and argument nor framed as examples of the fulfillment of OT prophecy. In this way they differ remarkably from the accounts of Jesus' death which precede them. Interestingly, some NT scholars cite the raw features of these narratives as yet another example of evidence that the resurrection passages are made-up by the disciples to keep the memory of Jesus and his mission alive. N.T. Wright and others counter that the raw and rickety form of the resurrection narratives actually strengthens the likelihood of their historical authenticity. "These stories are extremely peculiar, and the type of peculiarity they possess is not one that would have been invented. It looks as though the Gospel writers are struggling to describe a reality for which they didn't really have adequate language (N.T. Wright)." They are struggling to describe because the resurrection of Jesus takes everyone by surprise; it presents a category of salvation that is without precedent and is completely unexpected. Those who believed in life after death and those who believed that resurrection was part of this did not expect a resurrection to occur in the midst of ordinary life before what they would call the end of the world. That one man is raised in the middle of history defied imagination and was completely unanticipated. Flabbergasted, confused, and joyful to the point of tears would be good words to describe the disciples' initial response. This response to Jesus' resurrection opens our imagination to an aspect of the doctrine of the resurrection which is sometimes overlooked. Because the resurrection cannot be caused or even anticipated by human reason or power we meet the only action within history that at once helps to define our deepest need and solve it. Some theologians speak of this need in general terms as a need to be redeemed and saved from the human condition which is marred by 'original sin'. Rowan Williams has a wonderful summary of the human condition in his book, Tokens of Trust: "The Christian belief that is summed up in the language of 'original sin' is basically a way of saying that this is a tangle that goes back to the very roots of humanity.... In humanity's history, the ingrained habit of turning inwards, turning in upon ourselves, is passed on. We learn what we want.... by watching someone else wanting it and competing for it. Before we begin to make choices, our options have been silently reduced in this way. To speak of original sin isn't necessarily to speak as if there were a great metaphysical curse hanging over the human race; it's just to observe that our learning how to exist is mixed in with learning what does not make for our life or our joy. And every failure and wrong turn in the history of a person as in the history of our species locks us more and more firmly into ourselves. No wonder we drift further from peace, become less and less free to give. Something needs to reverse the flow, to break the cycle..... Only a human word, a human act will heal the process of human history; it isn't ideas and ideals that will do this, but some moment in history when relations are changed for good and all, when new things concretely become possible." The moment of history is the resurrection and the new things becoming possible is new life in Christ. It is only when we acknowledge that our lives need resurrection as well as forgiveness that we can begin to be open to how God will help us unravel the messes that he and he alone can unravel.


The last sentence raises a question. What does it mean to acknowledge that we need resurrection? A couple of weeks ago I mentioned in a homily that when applying the gospel to the nitty-gritty of our lives requires an exercise in imagination and invites us to think in terms of analogies. For example: the cross is foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews. How might this truth of the gospel, by way of analogy, help you discern how to choose a spouse, etc.? What other questions, by way of analogy, might this truth of the gospel prompt you to ask when choosing a business partner? Would the person's pride cause you to pause based on thinking analogically about this aspect of the gospel? In the same way the resurrection opens up windows for us to look through. For example, you may find yourself trapped in a pattern of negative thinking. You have nothing good to say about anyone or anything - not even yourself. Thinking of the resurrection as what God did that no one expected can offer an analogy for a situation like this. First, because of the resurrection we can say that there is something good to say everyday and that is that the future is open to new possibilities that stagger our imagination because God has raised Jesus from the dead. The second thing we can do is confess that only God can open this future up to us so we must repent of this extreme negativity that shuts us off from desiring God's love, God's future, etc. and ask God to open us to his work in our lives.


Questions for discussion:


1. The forgiveness that comes from Christ's death on the cross is a truth of the gospel that when meditated upon or applied to our life circumstances by way of analogy can be of great encouragement. When you come at the gospel from the angle of the resurrection as a complement to coming from the angle of being forgiven through Jesus' death on the cross, what perspective do you gain in the complement? How is you vision enlarged?

2. Can you think of an aspect of your complex life around which you need to remember that the resurrection is without precedent and took everyone by surprise? How can this thought encourage you?

3. When Rowan Williams (see above) talks about being locked into oneself and needing redemption from that what do you think he means? Can you put this in your own words? Does it follow from the way he sketches out his definition of original sin that there is a condition that underlies our individual sins that needs to be addressed in its own right? Does the resurrection shed some light on how to address this condition?