The resurrection of Jesus is the greatest, most certain, and most hopeful fact of human history. It changes everything.
Introduction
Why should we believe that there is good and that it will triumph over evil?
Over the past few months, I have looked at a whole range of issues from a Christian perspective including sexual ethics, marriage, politics, joy, how we can experience God’s presence and be used by him, predestination and freewill. These are all big issues but they receive meaning from this one question.
I’ve noticed that it is common for people to share or comment phrases such as ‘love wins’ or ‘love trumps hate’. Whenever I see these posts or t-shirts or banners I want to ask why the person believes it to be true.
People do seem to believe that good will win. In the big stories we tell ourselves, good seems to triumph over evil.
I am very fond of superhero movies and so, it seems, are a lot of other people. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has taken somewhere in the region of $17.5 billion. That isn’t even taking into account Star Wars or the DC movies. Every single one of these movies (save where they are the first of a two part story) has good triumphing over evil usually through someone behaving like Jesus. Even Wonder Woman ends up refusing to judge humanity according to what they deserve (showing grace) before being raised up into the air in the shape of a cross and destroying the devil (don’t believe me? Check out the movie from 2:04 onwards).
My point is that even in a society in the West that is losing touch with its religious and philosophical roots, we keep telling ourselves the story of Jesus but putting different clothes on it.
We tend to believe that good will triumph over evil but increasingly we are not sure why. We need a good reason to believe that it is not the person with the biggest stick or ego who will ultimately win the day. We need some foundation for believing that it is not simply the strongest who win, that hate will not triumph, that darkness will not prevail, that life will triumph over death.
This becomes particularly pressing when we are confronted with real evil or despair that seems to confound our optimism.
Christians believe that the resurrection of Jesus provides us with that reason.
Suggested Reading: 1 Corinthians 15
The Resurrection Happened
Christians believe that Jesus Christ really did rise from the dead.
It is tempting to think of Christianity as a body of great moral and philosophical teaching. It is one of the greatest traditions of thought in human history. If we include the Jewish Scriptures (the Christian Old Testament), it dates back thousands of years. Many of the greatest minds in the history of Western and Middle Eastern philosophy and theology have contributed to it. But it is not simply a great tradition.
It is tempting to think that Christianity as a great social movement. Wherever it has spread, Christianity led to improvements in medicine, schools, science, social conditions, and the position of minorities. For example, the Christian roots of the Enlightenment and contemporary Western society are well understood (however convenient it might be to overlook them).[1]Similarly, social scientists and historians have demonstrated that areas where Protestant missionaries have had a significant presence are on average more economically developed, have better health, higher educational attainment (particularly for women), lower corruption, greater literacy and on, and on.[2]Christianity is one of the greatest social movements in human history. But it is not merely a social movement.
It is tempting to think of Christianity as a great mystical spirituality. At our church and at others we have documented people being healed of sicknesses, people being spoken to through dreams and other supernatural means, and people being comforted and given spiritual strength to face the challenges of ill-health, bereavement, joblessness and heart-break. Christianity is a great mystical movement. But it is not merely a mystical spirituality.
Christianity is, above all, a claim about something that really happened.
For Christians Jesus really did live, really was dead, really was buried and really did come to life. We are aware that this belief sounds weird but it happens to be true.
There have been 2,000 years of hostile critics from outside Western Europe through engagement with the other great religious faiths and latterly with the noisy but shrinking phenomenon of atheism. The central way almost everyone has sought to undermine Christianity is by attacking the truth of the resurrection and in 2,000 years no one has come up with a plausible explanation.
Most of the time we avoid thinking about it. I want to challenge anyone who has taken the trouble to read what I have written and never thought about this, I want to challenge you to do so. You can check it out in a number of ways. There are plenty of books that have been written by people who were skeptics and were converted when they explored the evidence. You could try Frank Morrison, Who Moved the Stone, Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ, Josh McDowell, The Resurrection Factor, or (if you are feeling up for a challenge) William Lane Craig’s The Son Rises (be warned – he has many phDs in theology and philosophy).
The Resurrection Matters
If this is true, why does it matter?
It matters because death is defeated.
If Jesus rose from the death then there is good reason to believe that death is defeated. It shows that God can, has, and will overcome death. Death is the great enemy of humanity. 1 in 1 will die. From every tradition, creed, colour, race, gender, we will all face the same enemy at the end. We can’t hide from it.
Because Jesus Christ is alive we can know that death is not the final word on humanity. There is hope because Jesus is alive.
It matters because evil will be overcome.
When Jesus died, everything that humanity does to each other was at work in his death. He was the victim of injustice, he was executed by a people who loved violence, he was the subject of bitterness and hatred, he was betrayed for the sake of jealousy by a man who was greedy.
Lest we be tempted to throw stones we should examine our own hearts and see the seeds of each one of these evils there. And yet the resurrection of Jesus shows that God is capable of absorbing all of that hatred and bitterness, jealousy and envy, unkind words and unkind actions and overcoming them. It was as if God stood there and said ‘do your worst and was left still standing.’
Because Jesus is alive we can know that the evil and injustice of this world can be overcome by God. Moreover, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection our part in that evil can be forgiven. This is not a just world but there is hope because Jesus is alive.
It matters because love is ultimately triumphant.
The final word on humanity is not hatred but love. The love of God cannot be defeated. Love is a winning strategy.
The Resurrection Changes How We Live
Why am I writing this? If Jesus Christ is alive it changes everything.
It teaches us to repent and have faith.
We should stop doing wrong and start living differently. If Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, if hope triumphs over despair, love over hate, life over death, then we should align ourselves with love and with Jesus. Join the winning team. Why stay on the side of death if Jesus is alive?
It teaches us to choose hope.
Whatever is happening in the world or in your life is not the final word. There is hope because Christ has overcome death. So be hopeful. Don’t despair. Set your face to worship even in the worst of time.
It prompts us to love.
It may not always be met with joy and gratitude; Jesus was not always welcomed. Nevertheless, we should set our faces to choose love.
The resurrection of Jesus is the greatest, most certain, and most hopeful fact of human history. It changes everything.
[1]Nick Spencer, Enlightenment and Progress, <https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2018/02/20/enlightenment-and-progress-or-why-steven-pinker-is-wrong >; Ross Douthat, The Edge of Reason, < https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/opinion/sunday/steven-pinker-reason.html >
[2]For example, Robert D. Woodberry, ‘The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy’, American Political Science Review,106.2 (2012), pp.244-274 < https://www.academia.edu/2128659/The_Missionary_Roots_of_Liberal_Democracy>; https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/january-february/world-missionaries-made.html
Living God 
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