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On Easter Sunday, some of us heard St. Paul declare the heart of our Christian faith: “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”
Paul goes on to list others who saw the resurrected Jesus, including himself and “more than 500 brothers and sisters at one time” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). The resurrection of Jesus was widely witnessed and well attested, and the New Testament documents are some of the most historically reliable writings we have from ancient times.
The Church has long understood and taught that the physical, bodily death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus is at the heart of our faith. It is by Christ’s death that we are forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God, because Jesus took that burden of our sin on himself. It is by Christ’s resurrection that we have the hope of eternal life, because he has defeated death.
In 1960, John Updike wrote “Seven Stanzas for Easter,” reflecting on the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection: “Make no mistake: if he rose at all / It was as His body; If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit, / The amino acids rekindle, / The Church will fall.” It’s striking to hear the resurrection framed in modern, scientific terms.
“Let us not mock God with metaphor,” says Updike, and “Let us not seek to make it less monstrous, / For our own convenience, our own sense of beauty.” This is the central matter of the Christian message. If the Lord Jesus Christ did not truly die and was not truly raised, as Updike says, “The Church will fall.” Or as St. Paul puts it, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins,” and “we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19).
Christians can faithfully disagree on many things, but this is what binds us together. The core of our confession is the real, historical death and resurrection of the true God who became flesh for our sake. This is the wondrous good news we must always keep in view, and it is a joy to celebrate it together! Happy Easter!
