There are two impressive phrases related to Jesus Christ: “He suffered under Pontius Pilate; he was crucified, dead and buried ».
This expresses, condensed, all the crudeness of the humiliation of Christ. If such phrases were the last in the Bible, Christianity would be a nebulous enigma.
The end of the ministry of Jesus could be interpreted as a heartbreaking tragedy, as the collapse of a cluster of glorious hopes. And like a torturous mystery. Was Christ to die as a common malefactor?
The career of the admired Master, saint, worker of miracles, compassionate, revealer of the Father, dominator of demonic forces, herald and promoter of the Kingdom of God, was he to die as a common malefactor? Was his indisputable greatness to end in the cold darkness of a tomb? He who had saved others from death could not save himself? The forces of the Kingdom couldn’t wipe out all the enemy powers? Was the faith and hopes of the disciples to end in the cruelest of disappointments? How bitter are the words of the disciples of Emmaus when they returned from Jerusalem to his village: «We hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel» (Luke 24:21)
But after what happened, what could they expect?
Likewise, what hope could a Christian have today if he were to believe in a “dead and buried” Christ? Who would extol his glory? One could only think how pathetic his tragedy was. And those who still clung to the Crucified One would be, in the words of the apostle Paul, “the most pitiable of all men” (1 Cor. 15:19). But this sentence does not end with the word “buried.” He adds: “He rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God…”
With these phrases he highlights the most transcendental in the history of salvation. Inseparable from the message of the cross, and together with it, the proclamation of the exaltation of Jesus constitutes the axis of the Gospel. Four splendid points stand out in that proclamation: the resurrection of Jesus, his ascension into heaven, his sitting at the right hand of God, and his future coming in glory. Of these four glorious realities we will focus on the first: the resurrection of Christ.
The resurrection of Christ, the most important miracle
Obviously we are facing a miracle, the greatest in the experience of Jesus. Like the rest of his miracles, it has been the target of radically positivist historical criticism. Assuming the denial of all miracles advocated by D. Strauss, the most unlikely theories have been succeeding: that Jesus did not really die, but that he suffered a faint from which he recovered in the silent stillness of the tomb; that the disciples had stolen his body; that they had suffered a hallucination because of their emotional arousal, etc., etc. Any apologetic paragraph seems unnecessary here. Suffice it to say that any of the usual objections to the historical veracity of Christ’s resurrection, if examined without prejudice, are far less credible than the accounts of the evangelists.
Against all of them stands an undeniable fact: when Jesus’ body was buried the disciples were morally broken. Their beliefs about the messianic character of Jesus were shaken. Was he truly the “Anointed One” or would they have to wait for another, as John the Baptist once thought? Incomprehension and doubt were joined in them by fear. The group of the most faithful would gather in a house to mourn their pain and his frustration; but with the doors closed (Jn. 20:19). Their minds and hearts were literally devastated. His hope had dried up. And would this handful of followers have been able to withstand the hostility of the Sanhedrin if Jesus had remained dead? Would they risk their lives to defend a lie? Who can believe it?
The resurrection of Christ, foundation of the church and of faith
Without the resurrection of Jesus, the Christian Church would never have existed.
But the appearances of the risen Christ radically changed the situation. With the resurrection of the Lord of him he raised their faith. Now they saw without any doubt that they had not been mistaken in his hope, that what the Lord had told them about his death and resurrection was true. (Mt. 16:21; Mt. 17:22-23; Mark 8:31; Mark 9:31). Overjoyed, with uncontrollable joy, they would say to each other: “The Lord is truly risen” (Luke 24:34). From that moment on they would be active witnesses of the great miracle and would announce it to the four winds proclaiming the Gospel.
This fact became the foundation on which the Christian faith rests and is consolidated. It was the highlight in the first preaching on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:24, 29-33). It has remained so ever since. (Acts 3:15; Acts 4:10; Acts 5:30; Acts 10:40; Acts 13:30, 33, 37) and maintained its prominence in the apostolic letters. For Paul, faith only made sense when he relied on “He who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Ro. 4:24). In his first letter to the Corinthians he sums up the Gospel in a masterful way: “That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures » (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
And such importance is given to the resurrection that, if it had not taken place, the Christian faith would be a fiasco: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). So much so that in the early days of Christianity, as CS Lewis aptly observed, “preaching Christianity meant primarily preaching the resurrection.” So those who had heard only fragments of Paul’s teaching in Athens got the impression that he was talking about two new gods: Jesus and Anastasis (“resurrection” in Greek). If the message of the cross had been “madness” for the Greeks (1 Cor. 1:18), that of the resurrection had to seem to them the greatest of absurdities. Despite everything, the great event had taken place and became the rock on which the entire structure of the Christian faith was built. The basis of this structure was not – it is not – a simple doctrine, an intellectual inference or a vital desire. It was a glorious event, witnessed by many men and women, demonstrating that “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Mt. 22:32 and par.).
The resurrection of Christ, guarantee of our hope
Let us finally say that the resurrection of Christ guarantees the future resurrection to eternal life of those who believe in him. In one of his first letters (1 Thessalonians) Paul already referred to this doctrine (1 Thess. 4:14, 16) reaffirming what the Lord himself had taught (John 5:29; John 6:39, 40, 44, 54; John 11:25). But the strongest teaching on this subject is found in the monumental chapter 15 of his letter to the Corinthians. In this text the apostle develops a solid argument to demonstrate that Christ rose from the dead, thus refuting the error of those who affirmed that “there is no resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:12); but in its conclusion (1 Cor. 15:20) it links the resurrection of the Lord with that of his redeemed, which will take place at his second coming. The risen Christ is “the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
William Barclay recalls that the Passover Feast (when Jesus was resurrected) was also the Feast of First Fruits, which coincided with the time the barley was harvested (Lev. 23:10-11). That first fruit was the beginning of the harvest that was to follow, that is, the resurrection of his saints who had already passed away. To reinforce this statement, Paul introduces an antithetical parallel between Adam and Christ: “Just as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22). One is as true as the other. All those who are “in Adam,” that is, all who live in their fallen nature, far from God, die. All who are “in Christ” will be resurrected to eternal life or changed (1 Thess. 4:16-17). This perspective has always been a source of comfort and encouragement for the Christian people (1 Thess. 4:18). And it has given greater brilliance to the glory of the Risen One. That is how Paul seems to have understood it when he wrote: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4). A wonderful echo of what was said by the Lord Jesus Christ himself: “Because I live, you will also live.” (John 14:19).
The splendor of the glory of the Resurrection lights up our present life and is projected towards a future full of hope “knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and present us with you” (2 Cor. 4 :14). That is why Christians throughout the world remember Holy Week with a spirit of reflection, confession and gratitude, but above all with the same “great joy” of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary upon discovering the empty tomb and hearing the voice of the angel. affirm emphatically: “He is not here, for he has risen” (Mt. 28:6, 8).
Author: Jose M. Martinez
Adapted from his book “Beholding the Glory of Christ”