1 Corinthians 15.1-20

“For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures…”

Each Sunday after the sermon we stand and reaffirm our Christian beliefs, using the words of the Nicene Creed from the fourth century AD. And one of the things we affirm in the middle of that historic creed is that after Jesus was crucified for our sins and buried in a tomb, he was raised up to life again in the very same body which had died. This belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus is at the very center of our faith---each of the four Gospels report it, the apostles proclaimed it, and Christians for 2000 years have celebrated it each week as part of the Holy Eucharist.

Yet right from the beginnings of the Christian faith, there have been those within the Church who harbored doubts about Jesus’ bodily resurrection. In Matthew 28.17 we read these startling words about the disciples after his resurrection: “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” And in today’s lesson from 1 Corinthians 15, we read these words from the opening sentence (v. 12): “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?” Clearly, some of those new Christians at Corinth did not believe in Jesus’ bodily resurrection. Perhaps they believed, as do some today, that Jesus’ spirit rose and left his body behind to decay.

So when the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, he ended his letter with a long teaching on the bodily resurrection---58 verses in all in chapter 15. We read the first part of his teaching last week, 1 Corinthians 15.1-11. I would like to combine those verses with those we read today, and point out two things about Jesus’ bodily resurrection: its reality and its necessity.

THE REALITY

First, I would like you to see the reality of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15.3-8, St. Paul wrote, “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some had died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

The point Paul is making here is that many, many, many people actually saw Jesus alive, and if the readers doubted in his bodily resurrection, they could go ask most of them about it. Although no one actually saw the very instant when Jesus came back to life, Peter and John and Mary could tell them about the empty tomb on that first Easter morning. Hundreds of others could describe how they had seen Jesus, talked with him, walked with him, touched him and eaten meals with him after his resurrection---not as a ghost or an hallucination, but as a real person. And, as the icing on the cake, Paul himself could tell the doubters about how the risen Jesus appeared in person to him on the road to Damascus.

I suspect that some of you today may doubt the bodily resurrection of Jesus as did some of those new Christians in Corinth to whom Paul wrote. If so, your doubt is not necessarily bad, if it leads you to look more closely into the reality of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. When you do, I think you will discover what others have, that there is more evidence for Jesus’ resurrection from the dead than there is for many other historical events we simply take for granted. When I was a child, I sang a chorus in church that ended with these words: “You ask me how I know he lives: he lives within my heart.” But the reason he lives within my heart is because he rose bodily from the dead on that first Easter morning. And that is a historical reality.

THE NECESSITY

Second, I would like you to see the centrality of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15.17-19, St. Paul wrote, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

The point Paul is making here is that Jesus’ bodily resurrection is absolutely necessary for us as Christians---it is not an optional part of our faith. He puts it very bluntly: without the bodily resurrection, our faith is worthless, our sins remain unforgiven, our loved ones are gone forever as we will be when we die, and our time spent in church is a total waste because it is based on a falsehood. But with a firm belief in Jesus’ resurrection, we can face death with hope, we can be assured of God’s forgiveness, we can look forward to reunion with those who have gone before, and we can know that our life now has meaning and purpose.

Today’s lesson from 1 Corinthians 15 ends with these wonderful words: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.” Or, as the Bible paraphrase The Message puts it: “But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.” St. Paul writes that Jesus’ bodily resurrection is the first of many more bodily resurrections---what happened to him will happen to those of us who believe in him. What he experienced we will experience---resurrection of our bodies to new and everlasting life, perfect and incorruptible as he was. Jesus’ bodily resurrection is like the first piece of fruit on a tree in the springtime---when we see it we know there will be more to follow.

One year ago today, my father-in –law, the Rev. Dr. John Edward Hibma, died in Michigan. When we buried him two weeks later here in California, the officiant at the service read his favorite Bible verse, 1 Peter 1.3: “Blessed by the god and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” John lived, ministered, and died convinced of the reality of Jesus’ bodily resurrection and its necessity for Christian faith. Because of that conviction, he died surrounded by his family “in sure and certain hope of [his] resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ…” (The Book of Common Prayer, page 501). Do you have that conviction today in your mind and heart? Is Jesus’ bodily resurrection real for you? Is it a necessary part of your faith? If so, then when we come to the part of the Creed which says “On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures…,” I want you to say with feeling! And, if you don’t believe in the reality and necessity of Jesus’ bodily resurrection, why not?