by Anonymous Logician, Copyright April 08, 2007, all rights reserved. 777 views
"Christ is risen!" That, according to Scottish theologian James Stewart, is the core of the message that turned the world upside-down. The key was not that Christ had devised a humanitarian ethic (though His compassion is vital), that His miracles changed lives (though they did), or even that He died for our sins (though individual salvation is important). Without the Resurrection, says Stewart, "the Passion itself would be robbed of meaning." The apostles never allowed themselves to imagine that the Resurrection was "a mere epilogue to the scheme of salvation, a providential afterthought of God, a codicil to the divine last will and testament" (A Faith to Proclaim, p. 105).
The apostles didn't preach resurrection in a placidly philosophical context, as though the empty tomb was an empirical vindication of life after death in general. Nor did they veer into revivalistic pietism, harping on Christ's victory merely as proof of their own individual salvation. They preached the resurrection, as Stewart points out, "as an eschatological, that is, as a cosmic event." It was "the shattering of history by a creative act of God Almighty" and "the decisive turning-point for the human race" (p. 106).
The resurrection is God's proof that the world belongs to Him. It's the divine announcement that Christ's invasion of history was not a brief skirmish but the first campaign in a war of conquest. It's a reminder, when human events are at their bleakest and hostile forces smugly set watch over their perceived victory, that something else is at work.
It's a signal that the ground is about to shake.