well the resurrection of Jesus from the
dead is the be-all and the end-all of
Christian faith if Jesus has not been
raised from the dead then I and other
bishops and priests and Christian
ministers should just go get honest jobs
and all Christians ought to join another
religion st. Paul said if Christ has not
been raised your faith is in vain and we
are the most pitiable of people there
really is no third option
see if Jesus has not been raised from
the dead then the whole thing is a fraud
and a joke if he has been raised from
the dead then he is who he says he is
and he must become the absolute center
of our lives CS Lewis was right about
that there is no real third option
oh wait I don't think he rose from the
dead but he's a great moral teacher no
no if he didn't it didn't rise from the
dead Christianity is a fraud and a joke
that's how central it is now having seen
the importance of the facticity of the
resurrection what lessons can we draw
from it well Chris probably a thousand
but I'll just draw three today so here's
the first lesson this world is not it I
want to be careful because I don't mean
this world is bad I don't mean we should
be ignoring it what I mean is the world
of our ordinary experience the world of
immediate common-sense the world if you
want of modern secularism
we're the first culture they say really
in the history of humankind that is
largely accepting a secularist view of
the world that's just this world this is
it the resurrection is saying in no
uncertain terms that this world though
good is not the final horizon of what is
real it tells us as the Bible puts it
that God's about the business of making
a new heavens and a new earth he wants
to raise up and transfigure this world
and the resurrection is the great
indication of the truth of this you know
here's something I think is
self-evidently true
I think jean-paul Sartre in his college
the existentialism are dead right when
they say if there is no God life is
absurd that's true that's true I mean we
can enjoy things here and there in this
even s in passing world but let's face
it there's no God we all die and we stay
in our graves and that's the end of the
story then life is basically absurd no
matter what I accomplished it'll
eventually fade away I will fade away
and everyone that ever knew me will fade
away what's the point being a morally
upright person you say well that's
important well I guess but you know so
someone suffers and dies I don't do
anything about it the world looks on
with utter indifference and then
eventually we all fade away and then the
world fades away who cares who cares the
point is if you if you accept a
completely secularist view of reality
life is basically of meaningless the
resurrection of Jesus from the dead
therefore is this enormous the important
sign normally powerful sign that
something else is the case that God is
up to something beyond just our ordinary
experience here's a second great lesson
from the resurrection that tyrants your
time is up so I think what it meant now
for the first Christians Jesus their
friend and master is put to death by the
power of Rome in collusion with certain
of the Jewish leadership the cross was
the great sign of Roman tyranny Roman
Authority and power you know if you get
in our way
we will do that to you the cross was
meant to be horrific which is why they
displayed them publicly think of
Spartacus and his colleagues along the
Appian Way or in Jesus case they
crucified Him right by the the gate to
the city of Jerusalem so no one would
miss him I was just reading somewhere
very recently that historians speculate
the cross would have been about 10 feet
high you know because they wanted it to
be seen it was a sign of Roman tyranny
and power so when God raises Jesus from
the dead what does it say me the first
Christians it says no Caesars power is
not final he's not the ultimate
authority in fact his tyranny is under
judgment God's love is greater than any
it's in the world now watch how very
creative Christians have used this
insight to very powerful effect up and
down the ages the best example in recent
years is john paul ii in poland and i
think of that scene 1979 in victory
square in warsaw and he's preaching the
gospel preaching about god about human
rights about the resurrection and the
polish government the communist
government is right behind him and
behind them symbolically was the full
force of the soviet empire
the only john paul had he had no guns he
had no armies or tanks but right next to
him was this giant cross see the cross
has always been a taunt to tyrants it's
a way of saying the tyrants we're not
afraid of you the worst you can do to us
God is more powerful in them and John
Paul like all the other great a
Christian social activists over the
centuries knew the power of the cross
that's why we shouldn't privatize it the
the secular society today wants us to
privatize the cross sorry it's our
little symbol of our little peculiar
hobby called Christianity no no the
cross is meant to be as it was 2,000
years ago erected publicly it's meant to
be in the public eye and we Christians
have to keep doing that because the
timers have to know their time is up
here's a third lesson I'll draw from the
resurrection that the way of hope opens
to everybody why do we say that well
think of the cross is the journey of the
son of God all the way to the limits of
God forsaken is the father sense the
scent of the Sun into the world
all the way to death and Paul says even
death on a cross which is the worst way
they can imagine anyone dying the point
is the son is sent all the way out to
the very limits of human suffering even
yes to the point of God forsaken us so
when Jesus says on the cross God my God
why have you forsaken me what's the
point of that was the point of it the
point is he sent all the way out to get
everybody everyone who's wandered far
away from God look is now gathered in by
the son
so as you run as fast as you can away
from the father where are you running
you're running into the arms of the son
see that's what it means that the out
stretching of the trinitarian persons
and then in the resurrection when the
son in the spirit returns to the father
he returns in principle anyway gathering
the whole world and that's why the way
of hope opens up to everybody when
people attempted to say and I hear a lot
of my past will minister look I mean God
could never forgive me for what I did
I I've been so bad I mean don't even
bother with me Father I mean God could
never forgive me no no God went all the
way out he went into every dark corner
of human experience so that he could
draw the whole world back to him and so
that's why the resurrection is a sign of
hope so first lesson
transcendence there's more to life than
meets the eye
second lesson the tyrants tremble in the
presence of the Cross third lesson
there's hope for everybody
there's hope even for the most hopeless
let the power of the Resurrection
resonate in your own heart and announce
it to a waiting world