Fred Vanderbom

Whatever it was that happened on the first Easter day makes the Christian faith unique

Whereas other religions help their believers to cop out of, to cope with, or to conquer this world, the Christian message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a powerful affirmation that this world is the creation and kingdom of the God we know through Jesus Christ and his Spirit.

Miraculous catalyst

Jesus’ resurrection changed everything, for both his followers and his enemies.  Nobody expected it, but it clearly happened.  Despite 2000 years of reflection and debate, no other explanation of the change in Jesus’ band of loyal but clearly broken followers has ever been given that is more plausible than the resurrection.

The what and how of the actual events of that first Easter will always remain a mystery, just like the scholars who have tried to determine what the post-Easter Jesus was like have added nothing to the original and rather breathless eye-witness accounts.

Christians who recognise the greatness of God will not want to be childishly gullible, but they will allow room for God to be God, that is, beyond our normal range of experience.

Jesus’ resurrection transformed his followers

Think of all the negativity around Jesus in the Gospel stories.  No wonder he was at times frustrated, angry, grieving, sighing, withdrawing.

He was hunted early by a king and then later misunderstood by his parents and his cousin John the Baptist.  He was often attacked by the religious authorities.  He was popular for the wrong reasons and feared without real cause.

His own relatives and disciples were frequently on the wrong track. Their wrong expectations had to be corrected, their warnings had to be overridden and sometimes they had to be warned about merging their own agendas into Jesus’ journey.

And then there was the cold fear: Jesus’ family, followers and friends were ruled by utter dread during the weeks and days leading to his crucifixion.  They didn’t want their Rabbi to talk of dying – but he kept doing so.  Nor should he be planning to go up to Jerusalem – but he insisted.  They couldn’t understand his reckless exposure of himself to open hostility and danger: it was a death wish.

What actually happened was even worse than anyone had expected.  Jesus died in a frenzy of false accusations, hatred, violence and cruelty.  His people were crushed, beyond comfort, utterly lost about it all.  Their Messianic and personal hopes were demolished, their dreams of this wonderful and profound man being recognised as the Messianic, moral, and political leader and King of Israel were wiped out.

History keeps raising up and then dashing national hope.  Ask the Americans about Kennedy and King, and more recently remember what happened in Lebanon and Pakistan.

But Jesus was supposed to be different.  Jesus seemed to have deep knowledge and deep personal insight.  Couldn’t he of all people have foreseen and avoided what everybody else saw building up?

What could Jesus’ supporters do?  They felt powerless and in possible danger themselves.  Some also felt the shame of personal failure: they had disowned Jesus or failed to support him as he was dying.

Surely belonging to Jesus’ community of friends only made sense when he was doing what he did so well, not when he was dead.  So most of them scattered, and those who huddled together made sure their doors were locked – just in case.

Celebrating Good Friday and Easter certainly forces us to trace the radical transformation of Jesus’ followers.  It must also move us again to realise the difference Jesus still makes to the millions to whom he has given a new life.  That surely is at the heart of our Easter celebrations.

The final chapter of Mark’s Gospel has come down to us incomplete: its abrupt ending at the point of the women’s fear and confusion on Easter morning must be far from being the whole story!

Jesus’ resurrection did not leave people paralysed with confusion and fear.  It says “Yes” to God’s power and program, and it says “No” to our many anxieties.

It has been suggested that Mark’s unlikely ending could be useful in prompting us to think about our response to Jesus’ Easter victories.  We might ask ourselves questions such as:

•    Am I still seeking Jesus among the dead heroes of history?

•    Despite the fact that God has spoken the Good News to me, am I still basically afraid of the future He has opened up for me?

•    Am I confused and silent about Jesus as my living Lord, or am I able and willing to talk to others?

•    Does my life show I am really convinced of Jesus’ resurrection?

Because Jesus rose to life, we know that the demonic powers of his enemies and of death did not defeat him.  And in 2000 years this has not changed one bit!  We Christians have “a new hope, a new future”. 

Fear is hobbled

The Easter event greatly added to the authority of everything Jesus said: his predictions, priorities and promises.

It also showed up the various negative responses of Jesus’ followers for all the misguided and ineffective attitudes that they were.  The disciples were in fact gripped by a culture of denial and death, addicted to the so-called realities of our broken world.  Jesus’ resolute loyalty to his Father’s plan and lack of paralysing or controlling fear were powerfully vindicated.

Jesus’ resurrection says yes to this world  

The original Easter event has affirmed our life in this world.  This is a fact of which good Reformed and Presbyterian people will (or should) be very well aware.

The God we Christians know entered this world.  He shared our flesh and blood, our work and pleasures, our joys and struggles.  And when he was executed, he didn’t die a martyr’s death to be immediately rewarded in heaven.  Instead, he again underlined his “God with us” mission by eating, drinking, walking and talking with hundreds of people – who were never the same again.

This affirmation of our life in God’s created-perfect but obviously fallen world is central to the Christian faith.  Some of our Reformed fathers distinguished themselves by the passion of their commitment to God’s interest in this life and this world.

Other branches of the Christian Church have made other Bible passages their focus – ones that to many of us may seem rather escapist, like the monasticism, the life in God’s Spirit, or the return of Christ.

Thankfully if a little unfortunately for us, I see the larger Christian Church taking a greater interest in God’s heart and mind for the “here and now”, and too many Reformed people losing interest in this.  It seems “we’re too small and too busy”.

How can we as Christians say “Yes!” to life?  Dr Lewis Smedes in his book My God and I (2003) gave some examples which got me thinking for myself:

•    By making breakfast (or dinner will do) when you don’t normally.

•    By organising a breakfast for a group at church (young people, kids, women, men, your growth group) – and why not encourage everyone who comes to bring a friend or neighbour?.

•    By young people keeping themselves physically and morally pure, working out ways of honouring God with their bodies and respecting themselves as temples of God’s Spirit.

•    By families choosing to live simply so that others may simply live – think of the cost and the fruits.

•    By older folk continuing to do a few things that make them God’s special gift to their friends and their church.

•    By employers and workers staying away from the typical “us and them” type rhetoric of their friends, and occasionally introducing a “God idea or suggestion” into their conversation.

•    By students learning how faith connects with fossils and other issues in this awesome world which belongs to God.

•    By politicians not only mentioning God but being seen as better because of their Christian faith.

•    By inviting a group to join you at the movies whenever a film with a significant Christian thread (like Amazing Grace) is current.

•    By showing Christian compassion to sexual sinners as well as kindness to undoubted saints.

•    By being a good manager of God’s creation resources we use.

•    By being a male (and a pastor) who will push a broom or grab a tea towel after a church event.

We need to keep in mind that even though Jesus’ followers were full of the Holy Spirit after Pentecost, they weren’t always right and didn’t always agree.

This will be only the more true of Reformed people who think outside the New Testament square.  What is the role of a democratic government beyond the very cryptic lines of the apostles about their Roman rulers?  What are the responsibilities of employers and workers in today’s world?  How many of us are justified owning a FWD /SUV?

Yet I’m encouraged by the knowledge that I am far from the only one who has recognised and respected people who made a mark as a Christian politician, businessman, unionist, and car owner.  And whilst I have also read of Muslims and Hindus who were highly thought of, the Big Picture tells me that Jesus’ resurrection has made a far greater impact for good on this planet than any other person, event or faith.

The impact on history

What if Jesus’ death and resurrection were not part of world history?

Sadly, we must recognise that for many people living yesterday and today everything about Jesus Christ is very remote and irrelevant, quite likely unknown even.

But for anybody living in countries significantly affected by the Gospel (whether a Christian believer or not) it is simply impossible to imagine our personal or national story without Easter.

Some things would hardly change.  People are born and die, work and play, make war and love regardless of the Christ event.  Governments and economies would still rise and fall.

The fact that God has chosen to insert His story in the human story certainly adds something, however.  The cross and the open grave have changed the way we regard ourselves and life, sacrifice and death.

Christians are constantly challenged (using a range of images) to die to self and rise with Christ.

Good Friday and Easter can teach our world about the grace of God.  The two others crucified with Jesus, as well as Simon Peter and Judas Iscariot, were not judged by the wrong they had done but by their response to Jesus.  And we see the risen Lord giving reassurance and even restoration to his shattered followers.  Every one of the personal stories included in the crucifixion and resurrection narratives underlines the fact that God through his Son values each of us deeply and sensitively.

All of these principles and values have flowed into our personal and national psyche.  This is not to say we don’t owe anything to Plato and Socrates, Roman law and administrative skills, and the mathematical and architectural advances of the Muslim world.  What I am saying is that I would not be able to describe what my life and my culture would be like without God’s gifts in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The power of his resurrection

In his letter to the Philippians (3:10f) Paul declares his passion “to know the power of [Christ’s] resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”

That longing and life-aim, “to know the power of Christ’s resurrection” is certainly mind-stretching and challenging!  The power that raised Jesus’ battered and crucified corpse to life is both other-worldly and this-worldly.  I am sure that although we ourselves have never seen a resurrection, let alone experienced it personally, we have all seen “the power of Christ’s resurrection” at work in others and I trust ourselves.

This resurrection power is infinitely different and greater than the power that lifts an A380 aircraft off the ground or that creates a new life inside the womb.

Paul says he wants to live by that God-power, climaxing in his own resurrection on the Last Day.

We catch a glimpse of that Easter power when we trace Paul’s missionary journeys across hazardous seas and arduous overland itineraries, always in danger of physical, emotional and spiritual discouragements.

I doubt that any of our readers have seen God’s power at work to that extent, although we too will hopefully want to aspire to it!