Why The Resurrection Matters

Worldview Wednesday (4/15/09)

Why The Resurrection Matters

This weekend we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus - the holiest of Christian days and the pivotal moment in all of history. As is increasingly the case, we did so awash in a sea of skepticism - from a Newsweek article gleefully proclaiming the death of religion to endless polls reminding us of the sad decline in the number of people who even believe in God, much less in a resurrected one.

So it was refreshing to read the story of one who moved in the opposite direction. A. N. Wilson is an English writer who has written extensively on such topics as why Jesus was nothing more than a failed, and very dead, messiah-figure; and how Paul basically invented Christianity. He was a leading voice in the chorus of those who said we should not make too much of the historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection. It is a fairy tale too offensive for modern ears and should be understood as at best as religious symbolism, more likely as wishful thinking from the disciples, or quite possibly as the manipulative deceit of the apostle Paul - but certainly not as a historical fact.

But in an article for the Daily Mail, Mr. Wilson recounts his journey from skepticism back to the faith of his youth - a faith he now admits he left more because it seemed uncool than for any real intellectual reasons. A key component to his return was the resurrection. He writes, “In the past, I have questioned it’s veracity and suggested that it should not be taken literally. But the more I read the Easter story, the better it seems to fit and apply to the human condition.”

A. N. Wilson identifies two important truths that spoke powerfully to him and to his understanding of the human condition. The first is the affirmation that we are both spiritual and physical beings. The second is our hope for an eternal future.

As Christians, we affirm the resurrection because it helps explain both our physical and spiritual natures. Just as Jesus was truly God and truly man - and truly resurrected in the body - we are truly physical and spiritual beings, made to experience the world both materially and spiritually. As Wilson points out, “Materialist atheism says we are just a collection of chemicals. It has no answer whatsoever to the question of how we should be capable of love or heroism or poetry if we are simply animated pieces of meat. The Resurrection, which proclaims that matter and spirit are mysteriously conjoined, is the ultimate key to who we are.”

We also affirm the resurrection because it is the evidence for our hope in eternity. In 1 Corinthians 15 the apostle Paul writes, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. . . If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (v. 14, 19-22). The resurrection reminds us we were made for eternity. This too played a part in A. N. Wilson’s return to faith. He writes, “My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known - not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in the light of the Resurrection story, or in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die.”

It is that future we celebrated this weekend. A future secured through Jesus’ actions in the past - his real, true death and resurrection - that will continue to echo into eternity. A. N. Wilson heard the call of that echo, and it led him home. Welcome back, brother.

That is our worldview for this Wednesday.