RESURECTION FAITH

“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1Cor 15:14)

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the epicentre of the Christian faith. The Christian faith rises or falls within the truth value of resurrection testimony. If the resurrection was removed from Jesus’ story, the Christian faith would definitely pass as an exciting fiction or an academic perspective to the good life; informing ideas about the moral life and an embracing value of reciprocal love in human relationships. As such, the Jesus narrative would be nothing more than the teachings of such great intellectuals and heroes of antiquity. Upon the resurrection experience, there is something much more novel than the teachings of the ancients which borders on the reality that from thenceforth the life and times of Jesus has become a criterion for human existence.

Faith in the resurrection comes to us from the testimony of the New Testament, which is narrated in a complex form and so leaves us with many questions. Obviously because the primary witnesses of the resurrection were confronted with an unbelievable reality even though they had the injunction to bear testimony to it. Here it is worth recalling that the evangelist Mark reported that on their way down from the mount after the Transfiguration, the disciples were troubled by the saying of Jesus that the son of man would “rise from the dead” and they questioned one another what “rising from the dead” could mean. This puzzle was valid because this was an utterly new concept ruminating in their minds. Firstly, because the Jewish faith which they practiced acknowledged the resurrection of the dead at the end of time, but

“a resurrection into a definitive otherness in the midst of an earthly existence was not foreseen and so makes no sense.” 

This is analogous to the crucifixion. Israel expected a messiah, but no one was expecting a messiah who would undergo vicarious suffering and death on a cross. However, this was a necessity in the economy of salvation. As such the resurrection is a reality that believers have to discern and embrace in the light of their faith. Here faith implies the consequence of an encounter with God, who opens and purifies the heart. In the days marking the octave of Easter why not mediate on what “rising from the dead” could mean in our Christian faith and life?

It is indeed a valid question! What does it mean to “rise from the dead”? Benedict XVI teaches that 

“the resurrection of Jesus was about breaking out into an entirely new form of life, into a life that is no longer subjected to the law of dying and becoming...In Jesus’ resurrection a new possibility human existence is attained that affects everyone and that opens up a new kind of future for mankind.” 

This new form of life is what offers us the hope of salvation - the very purpose of passion of Christ. Thus, salvation remains the subject matter of Christianity. This is the sense in which Paul is right by linking the resurrection of Christians to the resurrection of Christ: 

“if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised...but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1Cor 15:16, 20).

The resurrection of Christ is thus a universal event paving a new dimension to human existence, where the values taught by Christ resonates in the hearts of men. Consequent upon this perspective, the Christian faith proclaims the universal truth of salvation. This helps us: to enter into the resurrection faith substantially, attests to the reasonableness of the resurrection faith and the motivation for its universal communicability to all parts of the globe. 

Quotes from Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The Resurrection, by Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI, Chapter 9.