TheoTrek — A Journey with God in Discipleship
Life Surprisingly New
1st Corinthians 15:19-26; Acts 10:34-43; Luke 24:1-12
Central Baptist Church, Lowesville, VA
08 April 2007
I have heard all sorts of reports on the news this week regarding places in Palestine designated as sacred, concerns over a looming apocalypse and reported signs of doom, discussion about Jesus’ possible family, and all sorts of conjecture that misdirect our focus and attention off the message of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection. Could it be that the gospel message is still so surprising that we do not really wish to hear it for what it is?
The first witnesses to the resurrection were all taken by surprise. The tomb was empty by the women’s accounts, but it just did not make any sense. All considered their words as simply rubbish. Peter did get up and run to the tomb. We are told elsewhere that John went as well. Peter still did not understand what was going on. He saw the empty burial clothing placed to the side, but was completely baffled by the scene. He left the tomb amazed and uncertain about what he had witnessed.
It had been a long weekend for Peter. He had vowed to remain faithful to the point of death, only to have denied any knowledge of Jesus three times on the same night. He had watched his hopes and dreams nailed to a cross and buried. Now the report that Jesus might be alive once more was one more dose of significant confusion to a man already perplexed beyond words. What was more, Jesus had even forgiven his betrayal before it had even taken place! Jesus had forgiven those who had nailed him to the cross. Would Peter be able to live in accord with this quality of forgiveness? It was a lot to grasp and process.
The women seem to have processed the information more quickly. They at least appear to have returned in haste to report what they had witnessed. They also struggled with the news. The other gospel writers mention their confusion more clearly than John. This good news of Jesus’ resurrection was good news, but it was also extremely surprising. It forced Jesus followers to revisit the things Jesus had said regarding his death, resurrection, and his overall teaching.
They could no longer rationalize away Jesus’ words regarding love for enemies as some lofty ideals never to be applied to the real world. Turning the other cheek suddenly took on a whole new meaning as they had witnessed Jesus’ passion and death. Forgiving seventy times seven for personal offenses took on a whole new reality. They could not look upon Jesus’ teachings as words divorced from the messier aspects of human living. Jesus death and resurrection called them as us to reassess their reading of Jesus’ teaching. Are we prepared to accept their implications for our daily living?
Peter would be called upon more than once to reassess his take on Jesus’ teaching. The passion and resurrection would destroy many of the filters he had used to process Jesus’ words. The gospel’s full message would take time to soak in and complete its work in reordering Peter’s priorities, practices, and traditions. Some time later at the home of Cornelius, Peter had to revisit the implications of the gospel of grace and its impact for those outside the circle of Judaism. Jesus’ forgiveness and gift of salvation extended beyond the limits of Peter’s embrace. It took Peter some time to grasp the scope of God’s offer of forgiveness, salvation, and fellowship.
It was not so difficult for those outside of Judaism to understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ could include them. It was harder for those on the inside to grasp that God’s grace was greater than their own. It was difficult for them to accept that God truly cared for people whose traditions, morality, and way of life was abhorrent to those steeped in Judaism. If Jesus could forgive from the cross those who yelled for his crucifixion, what was to hinder God from offering forgiveness and redemption to Gentiles who turned in repentance?
For Peter, as for the majority of believers of his day, taking the gospel beyond the limits of Judaism was a surprisingly new reality. They were not comfortable at all with going that far as bearers of God’s gift of grace. They had trouble accepting people who ate animals they considered filthy. They were gravely uncomfortable with the common promiscuity and homosexuality of the Gentile world. It was difficult for them to converse with people who worshipped idols and drank blood grant them greater vitality. Yet the resurrection gospel took them to this surprisingly new step of granting God’s grace even to these. If they had difficulty, what aspects of the gospel do we have difficulty accepting? Whom are we loathe to engage with the message of God’s grace in the living Christ?
Paul took up the charge to carry the gospel beyond the comfortable boundaries of Jewish society. As the apostle to the Gentiles, he took to heart this surprising turn of God’s love for all of humanity. He was not content to accept the limitations of confining and defining who was worthy of God’s gospel of grace. In a surprising stance for his day, he determined to take the gospel throughout the Gentile world, specifically to and through the cities of the hated Romans.
The Jews still considered this conquering people their ultimate enemies in their day. Rome took the position that Babylon had occupied in centuries past as the ultimate enemy of God’s people. They had placed Jerusalem under subjection, forcing those who worshipped the only and supreme God to serve and offer sacrifice on behalf of an idolatrous nation and its emperor. We find none of this attitude in Paul’s writings. Much to the contrary, we find a man who was so captured by the gospel of grace that he adopted the attitude of Christ Jesus toward the greatest enemies of God’s people.
Paul was no longer concerned with the independence and political power of either Jews or Christians. He looked to a wholly different understanding of God’s reign within the believer’s life. He looked to the liberating power of Christ Jesus’ resurrection as the ultimate victory and guarantor of true freedom for the believer. In this passage to the Corinthian church, Paul does not cast Rome is not the ultimate enemy. Death is the last enemy to be conquered. In Jesus’ resurrection, that enemy’s power has already been destroyed.
From this perspective, there is no more enemy to cause believers concern. Death was vanquished in the surprising resurrection of Christ Jesus. Despite all the apocalyptic doomsaying on the airways, the surprising new life of the resurrection of the gospel declares an end to concern over God’s enemies. The victory over the last enemy has already been settled in the resurrection we celebrate today. What is to keep us from living in recognition that the power of death has been destroyed by Christ?
We have a choice as to what we will do with the surprising turns of the new life presented in Jesus’ resurrection. We can choose to accept the freedom of this new life under God’s grace. We can choose to live the full reality of Jesus’ path to living out God’s reign. We can choose to allow confidence in Christ to rule our lives instead of fear of some enemy. Will we allow the surprising victory of Christ Jesus to live in and through us? It is the only way to fully celebrate new life in Christ.
—©2007 Christopher B. Harbin