1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Introduction
Bill-board: “The world is a mess but your garden doesn’t have to be.”
The idea that a garden could have something to do with feeling safe in the world is funny.
However, the claim of Christianity is that a garden really does have something to do with the deepest hope you long for.
The gospel of John is an eyewitness account of Jesus life and takes us to a cemetery garden in the early hours of the Sunday morning – a woman discovers an empty tomb, she bumps into a gardener, who turns out to be the risen Jesus.
- We know the story, but is it more than Christian tradition?
- And does it matter if it’s really just a story?
- A pleasant fiction?
- A comforting idea, just a throwaway line?
- a fortune cookie sentiment, that you wouldn’t put the full weight of your life on?
Like when someone turns to a child in a hospital waiting room, with a tearful smile: “Mummy’s singing with the angels now”; or “Grandad is looking down at us from above.”
Death moves our hearts to long that ‘life after death’ isn’t merely a possibility but a promise.
That’s why in first century the Apostle Paul stakes everything on the belief that Jesus rose from the dead.
Point 1 – He's been seen
One of the most famous people in Jewish history, was a man who described himself to be God’s messiah,
- He described himself as the true high priest
- He even claimed that he was ushering in God’s kingdom
- He even went toe to toe with the Romans
- He even was so famous he had a coin minted in his honour
Do you know his name?
He’s the most famous messiah claimant you have never heard of.
Why have you never heard of him, even though he was a more politically significant than Jesus?
Because when he died 135AD, he stayed dead.
In fact, between 20 BC 135 AD [period of ... years] there were 14 documented people who claim to be God’s anointed messiah, some of whom had a bigger following by far compared with Jesus of Nazareth.
But only one of the fourteen is remembered 2000 years later – why?
Because only one was credibly seen walking around after he had died.
And I know none of you would think it, but there can be what’s called a ‘chronological snobbery’ as one writer put it, where modern people look down on people of the past as easily duped and stupid.
This would be a foolishly arrogant position to take for many reasons, one of the big ones is that the Jews had no expectations that the prophesied Messiah would be killed and rise again. It would be like being told your uber is a silver BMW arriving outside and a Boeing 747 arriving in its place.
The Jews would have been as sceptical as a 21 Century Mancunian that Jesus alone died and rose again.
So with that in mind, Paul lists the witnesses, and it’s worth pointing out that the sceptical academics who will not give you the time of day to talk about the credibility of Christianity – if you offer them the letter of 1 Corinthians will say, “Oh go on then, let’s talk!”, because this particular NT letter can be traced as one of the oldest manuscripts that are available to study.
So for those who are tempted to say, ‘You can’t trust anything you read in the NT as it’s been changed and mythologised overtime’, you can’t say that easily about 1 Corinthians.
So, who saw him:
Firstly he lists Cephas.
This is notable because Cephas also known as Peter, was so convinced that Jesus was dead and all was lost that he betrayed Jesus by denying he knew him three times. It’s like asking Scar to write a character reference for Mufasa, - hardly a heroic testimony – unless of course it’s true.
And secondly Paul lists the Twelve. These were the disciples. Men who were terrified at the arrest, scattered and hid after the death of Jesus, and then completely change their minds.
What could explain the shift from fear to willingness to die for Christ? - they believed he was no longer dead.
Thirdly, more than five hundred saw Jesus back from the dead–
could it be individual delusions? -No, we’re told it was ‘at the same time’,
Could it be mass hysteria?
Really?
Of 500 people, simultaneously seeing Jesus (who even the non-Christian historian Josephus describes as a man who was categorically dead through a public killing by professionals).
Well, I guess it’s possible but those of you who like to dabble in logic will flag that is not plausible.
What’s Paul’s response, to the idea that this is ‘fake news’?
(“most of whom are still living”) - go ask them yourselves if you think they’re crazy.
Fourthly, there is James.
This is likely to be Jesus’ brother.
I like this one, because it’s got a personal flavour. If there is one person who would have strong opinions if I claimed to be divine – it's my brother who I once rolled down the staircase in a laundry basket.
More than that, in the world before social media and photos some could claim that the person walking around with nail scars in his wrists and feet, was: a Jesus Christ tribute act – so appearing to your own brother would be a good lie detector test.
Furthermore, Paul is likely to single out James because it was common practice for the closest descendent of the dead leader to step into the role of ‘new big cheese’.
So, if James, the brother of Jesus is saying: “Not a chance, my brother is still alive!” - it’s worth paying attention to.
Fifthly to the to all the apostles,
Sixthly and last of all Paul.
And even more startling than Peter (the betrayer changing his mind),
is Paul who used to persecute Christians, (Christians who claimed that Jesus rose from the dead),
and now that same Paul, claims that he too met the risen Jesus – and turned his life around.
It’s the equivalent of Darth Veda releasing a YouTube influencer apology video across the empire to say that Luke is the best Jedi ever! And now he’s going to stop destroying planets and turn the death star into a family church. That’s a compelling endorsement.
The only plausible account for the evidence is – Jesus didn’t stay dead.
Ah what about the theory – that Jesus was walking around afterwards because he never actually died – he was just badly injured. And the plan all along was for him to fake death and be broken out of the tomb by the cunning heist gang of disciples?
I like this one, it’s my favourite of the alternative theories – mainly because I love heist movies.
The insurmountable issue is it all depends upon the brutality of the flogging, the nails, the blood loss and suffocation by professional soldiers to some how against the overwhelming odds fail to cause in Jesus a terminal cardiac arrest.
That’s the equivalent of saying: all you have to do is commit the crime, then go to the nearest corner-shop, then buy a lottery scratch card, instantly win £100K and use that money to pay for your escape – easy!
In the immortal words of Duncan Banatyne from Dragons Den – “I’m out!”
Like it or not – Jesus has been seen!
Point 2 – Jesus sees you
But that’s not a surprise to many of us. We ignore the resurrection not because the evidence is poor but because the implications are massive.
[3-4] are considered by many New Testament scholars as the oldest Christian creed (statement of belief). Some date it as a shared liturgy from within weeks of the resurrection.
Paul himself says, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]:
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
Isn’t remarkable to think this is what the earliest followers of Jesus believed to be true – so true, they were willing to bet their lives on it.
But the question is why?
Paul links the specific news in [3] to the verified news of the resurrection in [4].
What is the good news that Jesus' resurrection would guarantee as true?
It’s that he died for your sins. And that single truth can change your life today.
Henry Scott-Holland famously wrote:
Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
This poem has often been used as funerals to capture a sentiment that there is nothing sad about death. Yet though we get the desire to find a paracetamol to numb the pain of grief, we know this is a delusion – death means everything changes first to the one who dies and secondly to those who live.
Christianity draws a link between death and what the Bible calls ‘sin’.
‘Sin’ is an ancient word that refers to living less than you were created to be. That a perfect God of love made you to enjoy perfect relationships with others, the world and most importantly with God himself.
Every time we fall short of this great and noble purpose of our lives, we add to the moral case against ourselves. We become a mockery of our own claims to “being a good person”, we re-ink the hypocrisy that we criticise others whilst doing worse in our hearts.
To use language of the modern age – every time we ‘sin’ we horcrux our souls.
How do we know this to be true? Simply, when your inner critic speaks you listen and you cannot make it silent.
For although our inner critics often speak exaggerated lies – there is always something deep down that we know to be true.
The damming verdict of the Bible is that your guilt for ‘sin’ is paid by your death.
What is the hope?
To be forgiven by the one who created you.
We’re like beloved toys, precious and beautiful and full of joy, yet so deeply broken and unravelled that we can only be restored in full by the expertise of the one who first made us.
And that is why we come to God alone for forgiveness.
And that is why Jesus went to the cross…
- And how do we know that Jesus’s promise for forgiveness is better than the words of your mother?
- Your spouse?
- Your therapist?
How can be sure - it’s happened, when we don’t feel forgiven?
When our lives still exhibit the mess we would expect of irreparable breakable toy?
How can be absolutely sure – everything has changed both now and after our own death – that it won’t be the end?
How do we really know?
- Because there is historical proof that Jesus Christ died and rose again.
- Because if death couldn’t hold him – it means it worked.
- Because if death couldn’t hold him – it means it will not hold you.
We started this talk with the theme of gardens, let us finish with the same.
Imagine a garden, that over a life time had been wonderfully cared for, nurtured and cultivated. Plants and flowers of every kind.
But the gardener was gifted a tree. The tree was the most beautiful tree in the world, not only stunning to see from every angle but of a kind that would nurture and feed every plant in the garden.
Now imagine, you are the gardener. You’ve done every measurement and survey of your garden and the tree to figure out where to put the tree – and nothing works.
It dawns on you that only choice would be to uproot ever existing plant and flower in the garden and place the tree as the centre and then replant everything around it. Such a move would make everything flourish – yet it would require everything to change.
Would you do it?
What assurance would you need to know it would be worth it?
I guess you’d need evidence as massive, as significant, as credible as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!
