Epiphany 6
Reading our epistle, it seems as if we have skipped ahead in the Church Year going from Epiphany last week to Easter this week. Our text is from the heart and core of St. Paul’s great resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15 with its glorious announcement: But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. But in the Epiphany season, aren’t we continuing our celebration of Christmas as by looking at Jesus’ miracles and teaching we are seeing that the One born in Bethlehem’s manger is not just an ordinary Baby but the very God Himself? Of course! But Christmas is not far away from Good Friday and Easter. All the events of our Lord’s life are connected with His saving work, why He came: for us and our salvation. There’s no “clean break” between them; they are gloriously inseparably connected.
And, if we think about it, what can be a greater epiphany/ revelation/ evidence that Jesus, who was born that true human Baby in Bethlehem, is indeed the very God Himself than His resurrection. In fact, St. Paul states very clearly Rm 1.3, 4]: Jesus Christ our Lord…was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. With Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, there is no doubt: the One born in Bethlehem that first Christmas truly is the Son of God. So, yes, Easter/ Jesus’ resurrection is a glorious Epiphany/ revelation of who He is. That same One who was wrapped in swaddling cloths was also quickly and temporarily wrapped in burial cloth but rose again bodily from the dead–showing by that He is the true God and had carried out/ finished the work He had come to do, our salvation.
There were problems in that church at Corinth that St. Paul was writing to. And one of those problems was the thinking that there is no resurrection from the dead. They seemed to have been okay with the idea that Jesus rose from the dead but were opposed to the idea that anybody else should rise from the dead. By denying the resurrection of the body, they were reflecting the typical Greek attitude that once a person is dead, they are dead. St. Paul ran across this earlier when he was in Athens with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who said of him when He was speaking of the resurrection [Ac 17.18]: What does this babbler want to say?
And in fact, it goes even further than that: Greek culture was okay with some sort of nebulous, foggy spiritual afterlife but opposed the notion that the body would rise from the dead. This is rooted in the commonly held notion among them that only the spiritual things are good but the body and physical things were bad. What does Paul say to this in our text? For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. For St. Paul it’s all or nothing! Either Jesus rose from the dead and all will rise, or no one rises from the dead and so neither did Jesus.
So these people who believed Jesus rose from the dead, but who in the very next breath said there is no resurrection of the dead– how could they hold these two opposing views that canceled each other out? They were influenced by and still held to the views of the culture around them. They, if you will, “wanted to have their cake and eat it too”; they tried to combine the views commonly held among them with Christianity; they tried to bring the outside culture into the Church and make the Church, God’s word palatable to the culture. That is a very dangerous thing to do because both cannot be true: For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. Only one can be true. If one accepts a commonly held view of the society which conflicts with the faith, the faith is weakened and destroyed and the society triumphs. Scripture never says “to grow” the Church by adopting the views of the society; instead, Scripture says “preach the word.” Jesus compares His word and the Church to leaven/ yeast–a little bit gets worked into the whole lump of dough and the whole dough is leavened.
Now if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how is it that some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? This is a very stern warning for us today. We live in a culture that is very opposed to Christ and His teaching. We are like fish and the culture around us is the water we swim in. We have to be very careful that we do not let the world around us determine what we believe–and what we believe about Christ; we dare never let the culture determine for us what is right and wrong–that’s what God does in His word. Everything we hear from the world around us, we must examine in the light of Holy Scripture. Like it was for the people in St. Paul’s day, it is very difficult to get rid of and not to adopt the common way of thinking that surrounds us. Yes, we must know what the culture is saying and believing so that we can bring Christ and His word to it; but we dare never try to bring the outside culture into the Church and make the Church and her beliefs and attitudes like the culture. They do not mix: Now if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how is it that some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? …For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
In this entire chapter 15, St. Paul is stressing the fact that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the heart and core of the Christian faith. Take away Jesus’ resurrection and the entire Christian faith collapses; there is then no Christian faith. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. That’s what the Christian faith is all about–the forgiveness of sins. And the heart and core of that is Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins and His resurrection on Easter morning, God raising Him, accepting His work for the salvation of the world, and declaring the world forgiven of its sin in Christ. Since Jesus’ resurrection is the heart and core of the Christian faith it has meaning for our lives now and for our life eternally.
Now, because of the fact of Jesus’ resurrection, but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, we can be certain of the forgiveness of our sin. And where our sins are forgiven us, we have peace with God; we are reconciled to Him; heaven stands open to us; we know God rightly as our dear, loving heavenly Father; we know Him as the One who loves us and gave Himself for us and who in Christ Jesus gives us all things and is working all things for our spiritual and eternal good.
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Precisely in Jesus’ resurrection we see that He is indeed our Savior; the One born in Bethlehem is indeed the only Savior of the world. The angel told Joseph [Mt. 1.21]: Do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call HIs name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Jesus could not be our Savior had He remained dead. Then death, the result of sin, would have triumphed; if death had triumphed that would mean that our sin is still standing before God, separating us from Him and condemning us.
And then think about this: in order for Jesus to rise from the dead–that means what? He first had to have died. Here we see His humanity, that Jesus is a true human being, one of us. Jesus is the God-Man. And since Jesus is true man, born that first Christmas, that means that He truly could be our Substitute in life–living a sinless, holy life fulfilling God’s law perfectly for us, rendering that perfect holiness God demands of each of us but which we don’t, sinning instead.
And as true man Jesus is also our Substitute on the cross, there enduring God’s wrath and punishment for all of our sins. And He truly died since [Rm 6.23] the wages of sin is death. Jesus had no sins of His own but He took ours with Him to the cross. And there, Jesus the God-man died–so great our sins that it took the death of God Himself to pay the price for them! The very center of the Christian faith is the forgiveness of sins. Our faith, our certainty of the forgiveness of our sins, is in Jesus, Who brought it about for us by His life, suffering and death and sealed it by His resurrection. Our faith is certain and sure! It is not in vain/ it is not without the blessed results–we are forgiven and heaven stands open to us because Jesus rose!
The wonderful thing is that when Jesus rose from the dead, He never died again. That’s why we don’t just say “Jesus rose!”–past tense, that historical event on Easter Sunday, but we also say “He is risen!” –present tense: He is alive now and still! And that means that He is alive in heaven, ruling and guiding all things. There is nothing outside of His control. He is working all things for the good of His Church and for His dear Christians. Because Jesus is risen, He is alive in His Church and so He comes to us in His holy word and gives us every heavenly gift and blessing like the forgiveness of sins, peace with God and eternal life. He comes to us in holy Baptism to dwell in our hearts and make them His home. He continues to come to us and unite with us physically/ bodily in the Holy Supper. As He is in us, He changes our lives. He leads us into a life of faith and good works, love. He gives us the Holy Spirit who leads us and strengthens us in faith and love.
Because Jesus rose from the dead and lives and reigns we have a glorious certainty. We know our faith is not a futile trust; Christian doctrine is not based on a delusion; we can be assured that the forgiveness of sins God promises us in His word and gives us there, in the absolution and sacraments is sure. This gives a brand new focus and direction to our lives. We know what is vital now–faith in the risen Jesus and the reception of His gifts and blessings in His word and Sacrament. Our number 1 goal now is to remain in that faith in and love of Christ. Everything else pales in comparison. And now our eyes are turned toward heaven.
Because Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, we are certain that we, too, shall one day rise bodily from our tombs, just as Jesus did. Here St. Paul is speaking to Christians, so he refers in our text only to the glorious bodily resurrection on the Last Day of the Christian. What gives form and focus to our lives now is Jesus’ resurrection because we look forward to what we confess in the Creed: I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. This earthly life is not all that there is! We have been united with Christ in baptism and the Blessed Sacrament. Where He has gone, we will one day also go: Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep/ died. In and through His resurrection He opened the door of life to us that we follow Him soul and body. That’s our goal! That’s what gives our lives meaning–they are a prelude to that perfect being and abiding with God in heaven. That’s the goal of our lives–to dwell in glory with the Lord eternally soul and body.
Our own bodily resurrection on the Last Day–certain because of Jesus’ resurrection–is the fulfillment of the gift of salvation. With that glorious heavenly future certain to us in Christ, we can face all our sufferings and trials in the proper light as St. Paul writes [Rm. 8.18]: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. We can be absolutely certain that the Lord is working to bring us there, precisely in and through these trials. We can now judge all things, what is important and what isn’t, in light of eternity: how does this affect my salvation? And the unimportant things will fall to the wayside and not encumber us. What a glorious peace we have because Jesus died for our sins, bodily rose from the dead and lives and reigns into all eternity. His bodily resurrection has meaning for us now and eternally. A glorious statement: but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead! INJ