This Resurrection Life

Well here we are in our 3rd week in a row looking at Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and we are continuing to uncover more problems with the church. And these are just the texts we’re looking at. Imagine if we had gone chapter by chapter what kinds of things we would uncover about all the different issues that are coming up in this community of believers. But it seems almost as if Paul saved the biggest issue for last because the final chapter is about donations, a plan to visit and a final greeting. The final issue that Paul addresses as we have just read is about those within the Corinthian community that that deny that there is a resurrection of the dead.

I know that almost seems absurd and like total blasphemy today, but we have to understand that these are brand new believers from both Jewish and Gentile backgrounds wrapping their heads around this concept of Jesus as Messiah and savior of the world. Even though Paul showed them that Jesus fulfilled the scriptures, this concept of messiah is different from what Jewish people of faith were expecting. So even to Jewish believers of Jesus the idea that the messiah had to die and in three days rise not the image they had been told or imagined in their minds. Then when we talk about Gentile believers they are accepting all of this on faith from what they have been told and how the Spirit moved them to believe.

But as we all know we all have big questions about God, faith, and this world. So while many of us may not have questions about the resurrection, though I’m sure some people do, there are all kinds of questions that come up that we wonder about and discuss and turn to scripture to be as faithful to God as we can through it all. I mean look at all the denominations, and non-denominations that exist in our world today and tell me that we don’t all have different views and theologies about God, faith, life, and everything in-between. And hopefully this place is a place that we can ponder those questions and seek a deeper understanding of our faith so that we can all grow closer to God in our walk of faith.

So what is Paul trying to say here? On the one hand it is very obvious what he is saying. He is saying that absolutely Christ was raised from the dead and that one day we will be too. If Christ wasn’t raised from the dead then what is he, the 12 apostles and everyone else doing by saying that he was? The who message of the good news of Jesus Christ is that he died and rose from the dead. We saw as we went through the gospel of Mark that 3 times Jesus tells his disciples that this very thing is going to happen. Essentially what Paul is saying and maybe rhetorically asking the Corinthians is this? Why would we be preaching a message that hinges on Jesus rising from the dead if he never rose from the dead? Which is why he concludes the section on the topic of what it would be like if Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead by saying that if that’s the case then Jesus only lived in this one worldly life and so do we, and if that’s the case then we should be pitied more than anyone else in this world. Why? Because we are following and worshipping a man who died, just like any other man who has lived and died from the beginning of time.

What I also believe that Paul is saying is that this proclamation of Jesus rising from the dead, while about us being raised as well, is more than just this idea of what happens when we die and where we go when we die. We know from Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus that Jesus talks about new life, and how that new life is here. Jesus uses the language of being born anew. When we talk about baptism we use the language of dying to sin and rising to new life in Jesus. So while we can in fact talk about resurrection life as the life to come, we also need to talk about resurrection life as the new life that we have in Christ Jesus in the here and now. Another way to put it is the inbreaking of the kingdom of God which Jesus says multiple times in the gospels. While not fully complete the beginning of the kingdom of God is happening here and now.

And if the kingdom of God is happening in the here and now then our resurrection life begins in the here and now. We can live this life knowing that as Paul puts it death has been swallowed up by a victory and that death has no sting. Death has no sting because Jesus did die to conquer sin and rise to give us new life, resurrection life. Which is both here now and we will see it in completion in the future. Which Paul addressed in the part of Corinthians last week when he talked about looking in a mirror and seeing dimly but soon we will see clearly.

We are invited and encouraged to live into our new resurrection life. How? By following in the path of Jesus and by living out his mission and ministry in the world: caring for the poor, the outcast, the widow and the orphan. In fact, these are where we see the early church at it’s best. Living into the kingdom of God by extending the grace of God given to them to all those who are in any kind of need. A community of believers most reflects and lives into Jesus’ resurrection when we live out the love and the grace of God to all whom we encounter.

We live this life, as Paul puts it, not by our own strength or understanding, but the grace of God that is within us. We receive that grace from the gift of the Spirit, and that same Spirit gives us the faith to trust in the truth and the power of the resurrection. And the power of the resurrection transforms us in this life to be a light to this world. All of this is possible because Christ died and conquered the sting of death which is sin by rising from the dead so that we too might rise to new life. A new life here and now and a new life in the life to come. Thanks be to God, who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.