'Our only hope is in a new world, a new world that breaks into the old one and begins to work on it from the inside. The resurrection of Jesus makes this new world a reality.'
19If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. 21For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; 22for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. 23But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
20But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. 21For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; 22for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. 23But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Alleluia!
Christ is risen!
(He is risen
indeed! Alleluia!)
‘If
for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be
pitied.’
When
St. Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians, he saved his most important
argument for the end of the letter. It seems that some of the Corinthians,
perhaps many of them, did not believe in the resurrection.
On
the face of it, this is not particularly surprising. Resurrection was a Jewish
idea, not a Greek one. The Corinthians, not being Jewish, perhaps saw
resurrection as a part of the story of Jesus they could take or leave. The more
important part of being Christian, they thought, was the fact that they
received spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit; gifts that would give them
status in this life.
From
a distance of two thousand years, we may not understand the Corinthians at all.
We have heard the stories of Jesus being raised from the dead since we were
children. This is why the Easter message is so important for us. We rejoice to
hear the news that those who have gone before us are not gone forever; we long
to hear the news that we will not be annihilated in death; that there is
something ahead of us that we can look forward to.
We
wonder how the Corinthians could not embrace the resurrection as joy. Paul
wonders as well. For him, it is not only that if there is no resurrection,
those who have died in Christ have perished, but that if there is no
resurrection, then Christ himself has not been raised. If Christ is dead, then
faith in him means nothing.
We
believe in a risen Lord. We may learn from those who have gone before us,
examples of wisdom and learning, courage and faith. But we can only worship a
risen One. We can only have faith is One who is alive.
Paul
disabuses the Corinthians of their lack of faith in the Resurrection. ‘If for
this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.’
It
seems so obvious to us. How could we worship a Savior who was not alive? How
could we have any real hope if we did not believe in a resurrection from the
dead?
And
yet, (and there’s always an ‘And yet,’ isn’t there!) we may not be so far
removed from the Corinthians as we think. St. Paul accuses the Corinthians of
hoping in Christ only for this life. How many Christians are there who still
think that faith is only about getting ahead in this life? It would be easy for
me to point to the Joel Osteens of the world, the preachers who say that if you
have enough faith and think the right thoughts you will be wealthy and healthy
and your problems will disappear.
But
the truth is, some of us most of the time and all of us some of the time really
do think that if we only believe in God, life must certainly turn out for us.
And if this doesn’t happen, we may think that either we have not believed in
God well enough, or that God has somehow failed us. In either case, life has
not turned out the way it should.
Certainly
I am not the only one who feels this way; that if only I had done things
correctly, then life would have worked out better than it has. And the only
alternative is even worse to think about: that God is unjust and unfair.
‘If
for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be
pitied.’
How
many of us are there who put all our hope in politics, whether they are
so-called conservatives or liberals? We far too easily equate worldly kingdoms
with God’s kingdom. Can we put our hope in politicians, who are all fallible
human beings? How often we assume that God cannot work in the world if the
wrong people are in power! How many of us believe that suffering and injustice can
keep people from God?
‘If
for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be
pitied.’
I
turned on the news this morning and saw another example of this: today in Sri
Lanka, there were coordinated bombing attacks against churches and hotels in
that country. We mourn the destruction of life, just as we mourned the
destruction of life at Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill last year and
the attacks on Muslims in New Zealand last month. But on Easter Sunday! Can’t
this day, of all days, be a day of peace?
But
this is exactly what I mean. We do not, we cannot put our hope in the idea that
if only the old world were patched up, things would change. We live in a world
that is broken, broken beyond any hope of ours to fix.
Our
only hope is in a new world, a new world
that breaks into the old one and begins to work on it from the inside. The
resurrection of Jesus makes this new world a reality.
Sometimes
we hear that Jesus ‘came back to life’ on Easter. Rather, it is better to say
that his Father gave Jesus new life on Easter. And it is through Jesus that the
new life comes to us. It is this new life which is the victory over sin, death
and the evil one.
On
Easter Sunday we celebrate that new life in the midst of the old one. Sin,
death and the devil still rage, but Christ has begun his reign over them. The ‘nevertheless’
in the lives of Christians is the sign of the reign of God even when things are
dark.
Though
sin attacks and confuses us, nevertheless we trust in Christ’s promise of
forgiveness. Though the world is full of
evils, yet we still strive to do good amidst the evil, and believe that Christ
will come again to judge evil and redeem the innocent. Though death does its
worst, yet God does his best, and so our song of Alleluia is made even at the grave.
Today
all that is best in the old world comes together, flowers and songs spring
forth, to herald the new world that is to come, the new world which Christ
makes sure. May the promise of Christ’s resurrection give you hope in that new
world and trust to live in the old one as a herald of the kingdom, until the
day when all our griefs are no more.
Alleluia!
Christ is risen!
He is risen
indeed! Alleluia!
