Every year in the days leading up to Easter, I think of whether or not there is proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is absolutely the most important claim made by anyone, anywhere at anytime. The implication of it being true is absolutely mind boggling. If you are a thinking person who relates beliefs to attitudes and action, knowing in your heart that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and went back to God will change your approach to everything.
Well, we all know that everyone who celebrates Easter as though it happened doesn’t lead a transformed life and we know that a lot of us put the resurrection of Jesus into the same category as a lot of other mythical stories like, “Alice in Wonderland,” “Pinocchio,” and “Peter Pan.” We find the story of a man who loved us, suffered for us, and was magically raised triumphant over the evil that killed him… a great hero story. We also find the whole noble suffering to triumph narrative a very useful metaphor. However, the claim of the early Apostles and church leaders was not that the resurrection was merely a powerful archetype but that it really happened. By the way, I love the power of the mythical and metaphorical and few people draw on that enough, but it’s not what set the early disciples on fire and led ten of the twelve to follow Jesus into martyrdom; it’s not what has made Christianity the sociological force that it is. History screams BC & AD, as though his life and death changed everything.
Now, I am going to run the risk here of sounding a little like Eyore, but if you will hear me out I think you’ll see I am more realist than pessimist. Almost a year ago a doctor told me my cancer had returned but that it was curable. Truth mixed with optimism is good news and a life saver. Here’s my premise that you might find a bit negative; I don’t think most of us are deeply convinced that the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened. Being deeply convinced is not the same as, “I’ll profess it just in case it’s true.” That makes sense to me, as most insurance policies do, but it’s hardly life altering.
It might be helpful for you to know that most of your beliefs aren’t formed in a very scientific way. We all think we’re science based in our beliefs but all the current belief research proves otherwise. Helen Pluckrose said this about the work of Jonathan Haidt on how we come to believe what we believe and I think it’s a brilliant analysis. “Jonathan Haidt shows that we work primarily on intuition and then use our reasoning capabilities to justify this because it was likely that it was more beneficial to our survival to maintain good relationships with other humans than to get things right. He describes this as our having, not an inner scientist but an inner lawyer. It is unlikely that any human can overcome this. The best we can do is be aware of it, keep in mind that we are probably wrong about many things.”
So think about it; if my premise is right that most of us don’t really believe that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ (a) we didn’t arrive at this conclusion scientifically and (b) we are probably wrong about many things, this explains why I’m an optimist. The reason the assertion of mine that most of us don’t believe in a literal bodily resurrection of Christ is optimistic is because I am imagining, what if we did?
Now what if we did believe in the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ? That’s an interesting question.
If we really believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ…
- No challenge in life would seem insurmountable
- Setbacks would be minimally discouraging
- We would embrace every challenge “like a boss”
- Our souls would be overwhelmed with faith in all the other promises of scripture
- We would have NO DOUBT our sins are forgiven and Christ’s redemption mission was accomplished
- We would invite everyone we knew to believe
- Churches that teach the literal bodily resurrection would be packed because we would be constantly inviting our friends to come hear more about this good news
- We would be happier because everything that makes us unhappy is temporal
- Scriptural morality would make sense because hopelessness is the basis of destructive behavior
- We would love easily and deeply because to love is to die
- We would no longer fear death
I could go on but, if you think about it, you’ll create your own list. Do you think perhaps, the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is worth looking into?
