Sermon for March 11, 2007Is Jesus Still Dead According To The Discovery Channel?by Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz |
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Scripture: I Corinthians 15:42-44 42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. Let me begin today with a question? If the archeologists who have been working on the so-called tomb or ossuary said to contain the bones of Jesus and other relatives could prove beyond any doubt that these are indeed the bones of Jesus of Nazareth, how would it affect your faith? Mainstream preachers owe a great debt of gratitude to the Discovery channel and to James Cameron for their sensational Easter season story of the year. Doesn’t it seem like each year some new story like this is timed to hit the press and, usually be a flash in the pan? I think last year it was the gospel of Judas. My own response is that there are two problems with the recent claims about Jesus’ bones: the first is that many prominent Biblical archeologists have pooh-poohed the story. John Reed who works for the National Geographic and who will be here in our building in June to speak at the graduation for our Disciple students has called this story “archeo porn—the worst sort of misuse of archeological evidence to support a theory that is so speculative it requires linking one weak hypothesis to another.” One example of the weakness of the claim is that of the 700 plus ossuaries or bone boxes found in Israel, more than 70 of them have the name Jesus/Jeshua on them. Some of those have the name Joseph as well and the name Mary. The headline in the Washington Post story I have made available for you is “The Lost Tomb of Jesus Claim is Called a Stunt”, called a stunt by leading archeologists in Israel and the US. The other good source about the archeological problems is a professor of New Testament at one of our United Methodist seminaries. His name is Ben Witherington and some of you have met him on the Disciple Bible study videos. He has a website, benwitherington.com, that will give you all the resources you need to know about that factual claims concerning the tomb of Jesus. So the first problem with the story has to do with the falseness of the evidence. The second problem is more important. Even if this could be proved to be the box containing the actual bones of Jesus of Nazareth, it would not be a threat to Christianity or to the church because the resurrection of Jesus was not about his physical corpse being resuscitated!! The reason this story has been troubling to many people is that we have not carefully read the book we say is the source book of our faith. The true false survey in your bulletin will remind you of that, (The answers will be on our web site) and a new book coming out in a week or two by Boston University professor Steve Prothero reminds us also. Dr. Prothero says that while 90% of Americans believe in God, only a small fraction really know anything about religion—including what is in our Bible. The fact that the Risen Christ was not a resuscitated corpse will be a surprise to many Christians, but the earliest parts of the New Testament tell us that the risen Christ was not a physical being like us. Other parts do say that but the earliest documents about Easter in the Bible tell us that Jesus was not raised as a physical body but as a SPIRITUAL BODY. And the other stories about Jesus’ resurrection are mixed in their accounts of whether he was a corporeal being like us. Some stories say that he was, others say the Risen Christ was like a ghost who did not want to be touched, was not recognizable, and could appear and then disappear in a room where the doors were locked. And the people who became passionate members of the Jesus movement after Easter were not there because of an empty tomb. They were convinced Christ was alive NOT because they had seen an empty tomb, but because THEY HAD SEEN THE RISEN CHRIST, THEY HAD EXPERIENCED HIM, AND THEIR LIVES WERE CHANGED FOREVER. Let’s walk through the evidence in the Bible and see for ourselves. The Risen Christ was not a resuscitated corpse. Let’s stop just for a second with that phrase. There are other stories of people being resuscitated from death in the gospels. Do you remember any of them? Lazarus is the most famous in the tenth chapter of the gospel of John. Another you might remember is Jesus in Capernaum going to the house of the synagogue leader, Jairus, and bringing his young daughter back to life. The third one I remember is when Jesus sees a widow in a funeral procession grieving for her son and he brings her son back to life. Resuscitating other bodies was something we read about three times in the gospels. The resurrection of Jesus was different from that and more mysterious. The earliest writer in the New Testament tells us about this mystery. Who is that writer? It is Paul who is closest in time to the earthly Jesus—the pre Easter Jesus. Why does Paul become a Christian? Was Paul one of the 12 disciples? Did Paul ever go to the empty tomb and see it? The answer is no to both questions. Paul came on the scene 10 or 15 years after the crucifixion and the resurrection. Paul never knew the earthly Jesus. He thought the Christian movement was a dangerous and misguided sect and Paul, good Pharisee that he was, was bent on wiping out this sect. He was on his way to the Syrian city of Damascus to round up some of these misguided “followers of the way” when something knocked him off his horse and he was blinded. He had an experience, a vision, of the Risen Christ and Christ asked him, “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He was taken into the city, he waited for one of he Christians there to come to him, the scales were removed from his eyes, he went on to study with other Christians and then became the foremost evangelist and missionary in Turkey and Greece and other places. But he never saw an empty tomb, he never saw a physically resuscitated Jesus, and he never touched the wounds in Jesus body. He writes later on about why he knows Christ is risen and why we will be resurrected also: Christ appeared to Peter, then to the other disciples, then to five hundred people at one time, then to James, then to others and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me.” (I Corinthians 15:5-8) Paul believes in and follows the Risen Christ because he has seen him. What about the empty tomb? Does Paul ever mention that as a way to convince others of the truth of Easter? You would think this persuasive, articulate evangelist would do that? He never does. There is no talk about an empty tomb in Paul. Easter was not about whether the body of Jesus was in or not in the tomb. Easter was about knowing that Christ is alive. In fact, the body of the Risen Christ was not a physical body. Paul says this, and it is in your bulletin insert. In talking about our resurrection and basing that on Christ’s resurrection, Paul says, “What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. One is a physical body, the other is a “spiritual body”—the only time that phrase appears in the Bible. He says then, Christ the last Adam became “a life giving spirit”. That is Jesus’ resurrection was not about his corpse coming back to life—it was more mysterious!! Jesus was a spiritual presence and not a physical presence. Again, this is the earliest writing in the Bible about Easter. The next person writing about Easter is the gospel of Mark, and in the gospels, the stories about Easter and resurrection vary. Sometimes people can recognize and even touch Jesus, other times they can’t; some people see a tomb that is empty, but most believe in the Risen Christ not because of anything about his grave but because they see him. Look at your quote sheet with me from the gospels: In Mark, in the original ending, there are no appearances by Jesus after the empty tomb is discovered. In Matthew, the Risen Christ appears to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and later on to the disciples. Some believed it was Christ and others doubted, but in Matthew he does appear to be in bodily form. In Luke we begin to get some differences: two disciples are walking to the town of Emmaus on that Sunday. They are joined by a mysterious stranger whom they do not know!! Who is it? It’s the Risen Christ, the one they have spent three years with every day! But now he is not recognizable. They walk and talk with him until they get to the town. He sits down to eat with them, he breaks the bread and their eyes are opened. Then, he vanishes!! Is this a bodily person like us, or someone more vision like? Next he appears in the room with all eleven disciples and they think he is a spirit but then he shows them his wounds and eats a piece of broiled fish. In John he is a ghost like figure again who meets Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb. She mistakes him for the gardener and he tells her not to touch him. He later appears on the beach while some of them are fishing. They do not recognize him at first, then they do and he cooks some fish for them and tells Peter three times to take care of his sheep. If we look at all of those stories I would have to say, well, if Jesus’ bones were found, it does not matter because the Risen Jesus was not matter, not flesh and blood like you and me. There is more. What is the proof of Easter for you? How do you know that something earth rattling happened to Jesus and his friends to convince them that he was alive still and that God was confirming him as the Messiah? Think about this with me. There were other Jewish leaders in this time who claimed or whose friends claimed they were the messiah. The book of Acts mentions one of those when the Jewish council is trying to figure out what to do with this passionate group of followers who say Christ is alive, and one of them, Gamaliel, says, “Remember that guy Theudas a while back who claimed to be somebody and had 400 followers and he was killed and his movement died out? And remember that other fellow like that who did the same thing and all his people scattered after he died?” Then Gamaliel says, “We should do nothing about these Jesus people because they will probably fade away also, and if they don’t, it will mean that this movement is from God and we will be fighting against God!!” Even if the bones of Jesus could be found, it would prove nothing, because there are four large pieces of evidence that Easter occurred and the Risen Christ is alive and at work. The first proof is the existence of the Christian movement, the church. Something happened to those first followers to completely turn them around—to transform them from what they were feeling on Friday night: defeated, grieving, disillusioned failures. They believed on Good Friday that they had wasted three years of their lives following this prophet and teacher and healer and now he had been executed. Something earth shaking happened to them to turn them into passionate missionaries who risked their lives and gave their lives so we could hear the great news about Christ also!! Clarence Jordan, Baptist minister and founder of the Christian community in Americus, Georgia where the idea for Habitat for Humanity was born says it this way: The crowning evidence that Jesus was alive was not a vacant grave but a spirit filled fellowship; not a rolled away stone but a carried away church!! The fact that that spirit filled fellowship, that carried away movement is still around is proof of the Resurrection of Christ, and the presence today of this movement after 2000 years and after Rome tried to destroy it and after all the other sordid chapters of Christian history including the crusades and the inquisition and the misguided war against science and the enlightenment and against people like Galileo—the continuation of the good things about the church tell me that Christ the spirit is still alive and moving among us, thanks be to God! Secondly, if Jesus were still dead, we would not have a book called the New Testament. People don’t write much about fallen, misguided martyrs whose followers made claims that were false. Thirdly we would not have Sunday as our day of worship. There was already a holy day of worship, a Sabbath day. What was it? It was Saturday and the Sabbath still is Saturday in Judaism. If Jesus is still dead, what caused his followers to change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday—unless something really amazing happened on a Sunday?? Finally, how about the sacrament of communion? We do not remember it as the Passover meal today, though it began that way. But Jesus turned it into something different and we celebrate it joyfully, not as a memorial to a dead and fallen martyr but as a celebration of the one who is still with us! Even if the bones of Jesus showed up, all of those things would still be true!! There is more isn’t there? We meet the Risen Christ when we come to his table to be fed and refreshed in communion. We meet him when we worship because he told us that when two or three are gathered in his name, he will be with us. We meet him when we see him at work bringing hope and resurrection to us. He was with us when we heard from Brooke’s family three weeks ago and they told us of having a new life because they are in their own home because of Habitat for Humanity and the 8 year old son spoke to us here and told us what it means to have new friends and a new life, and he said, all the bad parts of my life are behind me and the good parts are in front of me now. We experience the Risen Christ when we pray. When we pray the prayer he gave us that is still so important to us—Our father in Heaven, may your name be holy. May your kingdom come through us, may your will be done through us. We experience him when we pray this prayer: Lord Jesus Christ you are the light of the world. Fill my mind with your wisdom and my heart with your love. And no matter if in the future someone else finds some proof that his bones are still in an ossuary, he is risen in spirit, in a “spiritual body”, and he is at work in our world. We have seen him. We know him. He is alive and with us now.
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