Real Life Disciples: He is risen! (Part 1)

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices that they had prepared. And, they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen’” (Luke 24:1-6; NASB).
 
A number of years ago, I was a youth minister in a large parish. Following one of our teen retreats, another staff member from the parish asked to meet with me. His own son had gone on the retreat with the youth ministry and he had some questions for me after his son came home telling stories of all that happened on the weekend.

This meeting was set up a couple days ahead of time, which gave me way too much time to wonder what his questions would be. I was much younger than him and felt very intimidated. Over those couple of days, I was losing sleep, wracking my brain trying to think of what he could possibly be wanting to ask. I kept mulling every detail of the weekend in my mind.

Eventually, when we got together, the question he did ask left me somewhat dumbfounded. “What’s all this stuff about a personal relationship with Jesus that you were talking about on the retreat?” He seemed angry. I still remember pausing with that first question, not sure how to respond. I asked a question back to him, “You don’t think we can have a personal relationship with Jesus?” I was very confused. This wasn’t any parent, he was another staff member at our parish, the music director, in fact. Surely, he didn’t think that.

We went on for an hour or so debating, him referring to various authors, me referring to Scriptures. What emerged from him was some confusing theory about a “corporate” Jesus.

“Jesus shouldn’t be limited to a physical person, of a certain race and skin color and even gender, that would be too limiting and would make him too unrelatable to most of the population. He should be more of a ‘corporate’ reality that absorbs all races, all people, all genders,” he was saying. The longer the conversation went on, the more it turned into me asking questions.

I was somewhat fascinated with this different way of looking at things and confused how someone working for the Church could seriously hold to it. In the entire time we talked that day, he did not reference one Scripture passage. I asked about that several times, and he kept pointing to theologians and philosophers who had raised these questions. “But what about what the Scriptures say?” I kept asking him.

At one point, I asked that if Jesus wasn’t a real person, a 33-year-old Jewish male, then how does he explain the crucifixion, and what about the resurrection? These were in fact documentable, historical events.

“Does it really matter?” he asked, almost incredulously. Does it matter?! Well, it’s only the central, core belief of Christianity! Does it matter? Saint Paul says, “Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But, if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain” (I Cor. 15:12-14). It matters!

In the end, we had to walk away from that conversation agreeing to disagree. I’m not sure if I had any sway over his way of thinking, and if anything, his confusing way of seeing Jesus only deepened my conviction in the truth and the serious need to defend it. All the philosophers and theologians in the world can raise questions, but when their answers completely contradict what God and the Church have revealed for us to be true, you have to pause and reconsider whether their conclusions are leading to error – especially with a belief as fundamental as the resurrection!

As we celebrate this season of Easter, the fundamental truth of the resurrection should be something at the core of our daily life of prayer. “Christ is Risen, He is risen indeed!” The reality of Jesus rising from the dead has a great impact on our daily life. The fact that he rose from the dead means a number of critical things:

Our sins are forgiven;
Jesus is still with us;
The power of the resurrection is available to us, in every area of our lives;
We no longer need to fear death;
We were not made for this world.

There is so much to say here, and not enough room to say it! This is Part 1 of a two-part series on this topic. Next month, in the May 9 issue, which will still be squarely in the Season of Easter, I’ll flesh out those five reasons for us.

Let me end this part with these powerful words from Saint Paul, “But, if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead also will give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11, NASB).