Easter is a big deal to Christians around the world. It should be. Its significance can’t be exaggerated. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead after being entombed for three days is absolutely the most dramatic and pivotal miracle in history for two reasons.
First, the resurrection validates Jesus’ claim to be God. Jesus claimed repeatedly to be God in the flesh. He stated, “I and the Father are one.” “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.” “Before Abraham was born, I am” (John 10:30; John 14:9; John 8:58). Jesus’ enemies were furious with Him for making that claim. “For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18).
During His earthly ministry Jesus performed spectacular miracles to verify His identity. He proved He was Lord over disease, demons, nature and even death. He challenged His followers, “Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father” (John 10:37-38).
Jesus then made a claim that seemed preposterous to those who heard it: He specifically predicted His own resurrection. “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life” (Matthew 20:18-19). You can’t get any more specific than that!
There’s an old saying in sports that goes back to Hall of Fame pitcher Dizzy Dean and the 1934 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals — “It ain’t braggin’ if you can do it!” Jesus insisted He was going to conquer death and did it! He came back from the grave to live forever. The evidence for that truth is overwhelming. His disciples were so convinced they had seen Him alive they were all willing to die for the reality of the resurrection. Not one caved under the threat of imprisonment and death. His enemies were at a loss to explain the empty tomb and bribed Roman soldiers to lie about the whereabouts of his body. All they had to do was produce Jesus’ body but that was an impossibility.
If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead He was the biggest con man that ever lived because millions of followers have worshipped Him as God for 2,000 years. But the resurrection proves Jesus is God. That means every claim He made, every lesson He taught, every example He set is absolute truth. Jesus clearly stated, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Jesus is the standard of truth by which the world will be judged. “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).
Secondly, the resurrection provides us with our only realistic hope of life beyond the grave.
The strongest of all human instincts is self-preservation. Everyone wants to live forever. Death is termed the “grim reaper,” the “cold dark river,” the “long black train” that is to be avoided. Even the Bible calls death “the last enemy to be defeated” (1 Corinthians 15:26). That’s why every religion suggests there is life after death — reincarnation, Nirvana, or a Happy Hunting Ground.
But only Jesus Christ proves it’s possible. Only Jesus demonstrates it. He promised, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (John 11:25). The Apostle Paul’s life was dramatically transformed because he met the living Christ on the road to Damascus. He wrote, “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 8:11). And, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
I’m now 82 years old. Obviously I’m nearing the end of my earthly existence. My aging body reminds me daily it is “wasting away.” But I’m still purposeful and joyful because I believe with all my heart the best is yet to be. The resurrected Christ promises me, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3).
I’ve conducted nearly 1,000 funerals. I can testify that there’s a huge difference between a Christian funeral and that of a non-believer. The difference is hope. The hope of reunion. The hope of reward. The hope of heaven. Preachers worry about being relevant. To be the most relevant we need to be eternal. That’s why the late Voddie Baucham reminded preachers their primary task in one sentence is, “To prepare people to meet God and live forever.”
The Apostle Paul summed it up perfectly in 1 Corinthians 15: “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. … And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:14-22).
Amen! And amen!
Bob Russell is Retired Senior Minister of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY>