The resurrection of Jesus and its impact
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Revd L Simon Raomai
The crucified Jesus Christ on Good Friday is risen at the dawn of Easter Sunday. The victim of Good Friday has become the victor of Easter by defeating the sting of death. Hallelujah! He lives! He will live forever and ever eternally. By Jewish custom the Sabbath was over some time after six o’clock and weekday activities could be resumed. The principal characters who had engineered the Crucifixion met again at Pilate’s residence: they were the chief priests who did not believe in resurrection, the Pharisees who did, and Pilate who was anxious to be finished with the whole business and was probably irritated at being approached at all. Sir, they said with mock humility, we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, “After three days I will rise again.”
So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he had been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first (Matt.27:63,64). The thought of Jesus’ rising again or even of there bring any talk of his having risen had clearly frightened the authorities. Their creed said ‘Dead men don’t talk,’ and for their purpose, resurrection or anything after death would be decidedly inconvenient, even disastrous. Their deed might yet recoil on their heads, and that would threaten the dearest thing in the world to them-their power. Thus, even though it meant unseemly haste after the Sabbath-just as the Crucifixion had meant unseemly haste before the Sabbath.
The Resurrection of Jesus challenges Human authority and defies human security. For as the death sentence was Roman responsibility, what happened to the body was also Roman responsibility. The Roman authority, the Jewish leaders and even the high priests did not believe that Jesus will be resurrected. But Jesus was literally and truly resurrected because no human authority and power can withhold or stop against the divine Resurrection. The Bible says, that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus, the authority over life and death (Matt.28:18). As long as that is true, no one can bury the truth nor imprison justice nor contain love. The enemies of Jesus Christ tried to manipulate and prove wrong his Resurrection. One can temper only temporarily with natural law and moral law. The pendulum swings back inevitably, and in their case, it swung back immediately. Before dawn, the seal was broken; the huge and heavy stone that blocked the tomb was rolled away by a divine power; the soldiers who were in sentry were scattered with astonishment and tremble; and Jesus Christ rose from death.
The sorry part of the Resurrection was that those who had engineered the death of Jesus on the cross completely unchanged. It was the same mixture as before. Lies, bribes, and political manoeuvring tried to discredit his Resurrection. The Resurrection of Jesus threatens corrupt leadership. The chief priests made it as sure as they could. Still Jesus rose. They made and executed their evil counter plan; still within 50 days 3000 people had discovered Jesus to be very much alive, and the number grew rapidly thereafter, creating trouble for these leaders. It is the Cross all over again, but the cross is never the end. Jesus rose and all authority is invested in him. His Resurrection is the unshakable evidence that truth will ultimately triumph and justice finally be done. God is love, and love cannot be outwitted. The Cross and the Resurrection show us that forever. As Christ is the centre of the Christian faith, so the central fact in what Christians believe about him is the message of Easter-that Christ rose from the dead and alive today. There are many people who would like to deprive Christianity of the Resurrection; who are glad to accept Jesus as a great historical religious leader and as one who on the cross showed the supreme example of self-sacrificing love; but who refuses to believe that he rose on the third day, and that he alive today. One of the most important aspects of the Resurrection, in the capital city of Jerusalem on Easter over two thousand years ago, left a tremendous life transforming impact which continues today. It is like dropping a big stone into a vast water body causing multiple rippers and a gradual effect on its surface. A believer in Jesus Christ can have complete confidence, as did the first Christians, that his faith was based, not on myth or legend, but on the solid historical fact of the risen Christ and the empty tomb. If there is no Resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Cor.15:13-19) The Most important of all, the individual no matter what community or race of people he belongs to can experience the power of the risen Christ in his life today. First of all, he can know that his sins are forgiven.
Second, he can be assured of eternal life and his own resurrection from the grave. Third, he can be released from a meaningless and empty life and be transformed into a new creature in Jesus Christ. What is your evaluation and decision? What do you think of the empty tomb? Whose side are you on? Are we most readily identified with those who crucified Jesus for selfish ends and tried to hush up his Resurrection in order to hang on to their paltry power? Or are we identified with the other bunch of hard hearted, skeptical men and women when Jesus was crucified and resurrected? They found it too good to be true that Jesus, whom they had deserted, doubted, and denied, had come back loving and looking for them. He recovered them from their fear and doubt and depression and worked such a radical transformation in them that they in turn went out and turned the world upside down. The same could happen to us if we believe in the Resurrection and accept the crucified and risen Jesus as the son of God and our personal saviour. Then we will know a new kind of power-not the ineffective power of a corrupt and selfish officialdom but the power of the Resurrection, the power to rise again from evil and sin and unworthy conduct to integrity, truth, love, and forgiveness.
May the Resurrected Jesus Christ continue to live in your heart and home to experience the real meaning of Easter through Him the Prince of Peace. The writer is the president of All Manipur Christian Organization (AMCO)
The crucified Jesus Christ on Good Friday is risen at the dawn of Easter Sunday. The victim of Good Friday has become the victor of Easter by defeating the sting of death. Hallelujah! He lives! He will live forever and ever eternally. By Jewish custom the Sabbath was over some time after six o’clock and weekday activities could be resumed. The principal characters who had engineered the Crucifixion met again at Pilate’s residence: they were the chief priests who did not believe in resurrection, the Pharisees who did, and Pilate who was anxious to be finished with the whole business and was probably irritated at being approached at all. Sir, they said with mock humility, we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, “After three days I will rise again.”
So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he had been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first (Matt.27:63,64). The thought of Jesus’ rising again or even of there bring any talk of his having risen had clearly frightened the authorities. Their creed said ‘Dead men don’t talk,’ and for their purpose, resurrection or anything after death would be decidedly inconvenient, even disastrous. Their deed might yet recoil on their heads, and that would threaten the dearest thing in the world to them-their power. Thus, even though it meant unseemly haste after the Sabbath-just as the Crucifixion had meant unseemly haste before the Sabbath.
The Resurrection of Jesus challenges Human authority and defies human security. For as the death sentence was Roman responsibility, what happened to the body was also Roman responsibility. The Roman authority, the Jewish leaders and even the high priests did not believe that Jesus will be resurrected. But Jesus was literally and truly resurrected because no human authority and power can withhold or stop against the divine Resurrection. The Bible says, that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus, the authority over life and death (Matt.28:18). As long as that is true, no one can bury the truth nor imprison justice nor contain love. The enemies of Jesus Christ tried to manipulate and prove wrong his Resurrection. One can temper only temporarily with natural law and moral law. The pendulum swings back inevitably, and in their case, it swung back immediately. Before dawn, the seal was broken; the huge and heavy stone that blocked the tomb was rolled away by a divine power; the soldiers who were in sentry were scattered with astonishment and tremble; and Jesus Christ rose from death.
The sorry part of the Resurrection was that those who had engineered the death of Jesus on the cross completely unchanged. It was the same mixture as before. Lies, bribes, and political manoeuvring tried to discredit his Resurrection. The Resurrection of Jesus threatens corrupt leadership. The chief priests made it as sure as they could. Still Jesus rose. They made and executed their evil counter plan; still within 50 days 3000 people had discovered Jesus to be very much alive, and the number grew rapidly thereafter, creating trouble for these leaders. It is the Cross all over again, but the cross is never the end. Jesus rose and all authority is invested in him. His Resurrection is the unshakable evidence that truth will ultimately triumph and justice finally be done. God is love, and love cannot be outwitted. The Cross and the Resurrection show us that forever. As Christ is the centre of the Christian faith, so the central fact in what Christians believe about him is the message of Easter-that Christ rose from the dead and alive today. There are many people who would like to deprive Christianity of the Resurrection; who are glad to accept Jesus as a great historical religious leader and as one who on the cross showed the supreme example of self-sacrificing love; but who refuses to believe that he rose on the third day, and that he alive today. One of the most important aspects of the Resurrection, in the capital city of Jerusalem on Easter over two thousand years ago, left a tremendous life transforming impact which continues today. It is like dropping a big stone into a vast water body causing multiple rippers and a gradual effect on its surface. A believer in Jesus Christ can have complete confidence, as did the first Christians, that his faith was based, not on myth or legend, but on the solid historical fact of the risen Christ and the empty tomb. If there is no Resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Cor.15:13-19) The Most important of all, the individual no matter what community or race of people he belongs to can experience the power of the risen Christ in his life today. First of all, he can know that his sins are forgiven.
Second, he can be assured of eternal life and his own resurrection from the grave. Third, he can be released from a meaningless and empty life and be transformed into a new creature in Jesus Christ. What is your evaluation and decision? What do you think of the empty tomb? Whose side are you on? Are we most readily identified with those who crucified Jesus for selfish ends and tried to hush up his Resurrection in order to hang on to their paltry power? Or are we identified with the other bunch of hard hearted, skeptical men and women when Jesus was crucified and resurrected? They found it too good to be true that Jesus, whom they had deserted, doubted, and denied, had come back loving and looking for them. He recovered them from their fear and doubt and depression and worked such a radical transformation in them that they in turn went out and turned the world upside down. The same could happen to us if we believe in the Resurrection and accept the crucified and risen Jesus as the son of God and our personal saviour. Then we will know a new kind of power-not the ineffective power of a corrupt and selfish officialdom but the power of the Resurrection, the power to rise again from evil and sin and unworthy conduct to integrity, truth, love, and forgiveness.
May the Resurrected Jesus Christ continue to live in your heart and home to experience the real meaning of Easter through Him the Prince of Peace. The writer is the president of All Manipur Christian Organization (AMCO)