Happy Resurrection Day!!!

We follow a Savior who died but wouldn’t stay dead!

Have you ever thought about how amazing the resurrection is? It is shocking, crazy, and hard to believe. But it is true! Think about how Jesus’ followers felt. They watched him die, they buried him in the tomb, and when they went to take care of his body it was GONE! Mark tells us the women ran away scared! Matthew describes the scene:
“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.”
Those who experienced the resurrection were frightened, amazed, struck with awe, dumbfounded, scared witless, worshipful… Actually, all of the above all at once! But I think we have grown so used to the story that it has stopped truly shocking us.

I have had the opportunity to see people hear the Gospel message for the first time. I was teaching in Papua New Guinea and told the basic Gospel story: God sent his Son, Jesus, to teach us how to live to honor God, but people didn’t like his message so they had him killed. I watched the sadness in the crowd as we talked about the death of Jesus and his burial. I needed to stop to get a drink of water when one of the listeners spoke up: “NO! That can’t be the end! I know you didn’t come all this way to tell us a story about how a man died.” So I was able to tell them the REST of the story (as Paul Harvey used to say.) As I told them about the resurrection they began to smile and clap, and two or three started crying out of joy. The entire group was moved by the story of the resurrection.

It is powerful. It is amazing. It is ridiculous. It is the hinge of history. It is an act of God. Think about it: We follow a Savior who died but wouldn’t stay dead! That is the message of hope that the world needs to hear. And that is the wonderful event that we are celebrating today.

Happy Resurrection Day!

That's My King

Sorry I have been off and on about posting. I have had a lot of things going these last two weeks, so something had to give. God bless you guys; I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I will be posting regularly again on January 1st.

This is one of my favorite videos (and speeches), and I wanted to share it with you guys here:



I love it: "Death couldn't handle him and the grave couldn't hold him!" Isn't it amazing. Think about it: We serve a God who died but wouldn't stay dead! Praise God!

Resurrection Motif and the Gabriel Stone

Recently a new archaeological discovery has come to light from the Jordanian banks near the Dead Sea. A local antiquities collector purchased a large stone inscription approximately a decade ago that details (as one archaeologist claims) a messianic resurrection motif that predates the birth of Christ by a few decades. (For more on this story, see the TIME Magazine article at http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1820685,00.html, and the CNN video at http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/07/11/wedeman.gabriel.cnn?iref=videosearch.)

The stone inscription is approximately three feet tall and consists of ink inscribed on the stone, and has been chemically dated to a few decades before the time of Christ. The stone theoretically describes the death of a messianic figure, followed by his resurrection after a short time by the archangel Gabriel. (This reading, however, depends on creative interpretation of a smudged passage on the stone, and thus is not at all conclusive for ascertaining the actual reading of the stone.)

Many scholars have argued that the credibility of Christianity was dependant on the unique nature of the Christian claim. The idea of a murdered Messiah was an anathema to the people of Israel, and was so audacious that the Christian claim had to be true! Thus, the reliability of the Christian message, at least as posited in their arguments, relies on the audacious uniqueness of the Christian message.

And indeed, the idea of a murdered Messiah would have been a shock to the Jews. Although Christians equate the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 (et al) as a reference to Messiah, there is no evidence that the Jews of the day had any similar ideas. The Messiah was the one who was anointed by God to be the Savior of the people of Israel, the one who would drive out the Romans (and any other conquerors), consecrate the Temple by reestablishing the holy worship of YHWH, and establish the eternal reign of God from Mt. Zion. The Messiah was to be God’s chosen instrument to bring peace to the world (and power to the people of Israel) through his military conquest of Israel’s enemies. God would once again reveal his power through his chosen people, and the Messiah would be his instrument of conquest.

(Note: There were as many different Messianic expectations as there were sects/individuals in Israel. These generalized statements sum up the gist of most of their expectations. For more on the Messianic expectations of first century Judaism, see John J, Collins, The Scepter and the Star, and Daniel McGraw, “Messianic Expectations of the Qumran Community in 4Q246 and 4Q521.”)

A few years ago a scholar claimed to have uncovered a Qumran connection to a Suffering Messiah, the Anointed One who died at the hands of his enemies. The passage, however, turned out to refer instead to the conquering Messiah who put his enemies to death, not a suffering Christological figure. Thus, the idea of a Messiah who suffers (or, even worse, dies) would be an anathema to the people of Israel.

The stone, however, has been verified as authentic (at least, at this time.) The question arises: How does the uniqueness of Christianity stand in light of this “new information”?

The Bible itself lends credence to the belief in a resurrection idea that developed during the Intertestamental Period, even a possible form of bodily resurrection. A group of Sadducees ask Jesus about the marriage of a seven-time widow in Matthew 22:23-33 (cf. Mark 12, Luke 20.) We are told here in this passage, as well as in Acts (4:1-3; 23:7-8), that the resurrection was not a concept believed by the Sadducees but was accepted by the Pharisees.

Two of the main sects within Judaism adhered to different ideas concerning the resurrection of the dead. However, none would have tied it to the Messianic figure. Not even the "Murdered Messiah" fragment from the dead sea scrolls (now proved to refer to the Messiah killing his enemies)would make such a claim...

But if it DOES indeed refer to a crucified messiah, does that negate the validity of Jesus' claim? God has already shown us that he works through the cultural and intellectual conceptions of humanity (i.e. Suzrainty treaty outline of Deuteronomy, the depiction of God as a Baal-like figure in Psalms, the similarities AND differences between Genesis 1-11 and other ANE literature.) Why couldn't God chose to work that way again?

What do you think? Log in and let me know your thoughts and responses.