The Balance of the Resurection

By Adam Faughn     This weekend, a large number of people around the world will celebrate the Easter holiday. Some will make it nothing more than a secular event, with egg-dying and talk of a bunny rabbit. Others will consider it a religious holiday, focusing their thinking on the resurrection of Jesus.     For New Testament Christians, we must be reminded that we are not commanded in Scripture to celebrate any sort of special religious "holiday." Instead, we are told to worship and remember each week on the first day of the week, and we are told to live each and every day in a way that reflects what we believe.     Still, with so many considering a central facet of Christianity this weekend, think just for a moment about the "balance" of how we consider the resurrection. When we think of that momentous event, there are two things we must not do.     First, we must not--in our thinking and teaching--leave Jesus on the cross or in the grave. Some of the most powerful and resounding words ever spoken are "He is risen" (Matthew 28:6). While we rightly focus on the cross in so much of what we do, we must not simply leave Jesus as the crucified Lord. We must remember that He is also the risen Lord!     If you take the time to carefully read the teaching that is recorded for us in the book of Acts, one thing you will likely notice is a strong emphasis on the resurrection. Yes, the cross is mentioned (many times, in fact), but Jesus's overcoming of the grave is of central importance in the teaching that was given (see Acts 2:32; 3:15; 4:10; et al.). The reasons are simple: they prove Jesus to be the One He claimed to be completely, and the resurrection gives us hope of our own resurrection.     Likely, you have heard it said that if Jesus did not overcome death, He is nothing more than just another good--but dead--teacher. That may be overstating things a bit, but it makes the point quite well. When we think about the death of Jesus, we need to be certain that we do not leave Him on the cross nor in the grave. We need to make sure we remember that He is risen.      Second, we need to remember that He was raised from something. For a good number of people, this is what they must work on for this weekend. They love the thought of Jesus overcoming death and the hope it provides, but they do not want to let their mind go back just three days to the horrific scenes of the cross.     To state the matter bluntly, we cannot have one without the other. For Jesus to overcome death, He had to truly be dead. That is obvious. But the Bible does not "sanitize" the picture of the cross for us. It leaves us with no option but to see how gruesome and even grotesque that type of death was. It is one reason Paul would later speak of Jesus's death and add the phrase "even death on the cross" (Philippians 2:8). Those of his day knew how awful it was. While we do not execute criminals in the same manner today, we cannot make the death of Jesus less than it was. It was horrific and awful. The resurrection points us back to not just that Jesus died, but how He died and was buried.     One of the beautiful things about our faith is that we have the complete picture. While at times it is helpful to focus on the cross and at other times it is helpful to focus on the resurrection, we need to spend a great deal of time remembering the totality of what occurred to bring our salvation and hope. We cannot leave Jesus in the grave, nor can we fail to go back to remember the death that He died. We are simply not left with that option if we want to truly consider what Jesus has done for us. "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures..." (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

- Adam Faughn preaches for the Central Church of Christ in Paducah KY. He may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://www.centralchurchofchrist.org Visit the Faughn Family blog, A Legacy of Faith