O Death, Where is Your Victory? - 1 Corinthians 15
May 24, 2020
1 Corinthians 15:1-26, 51-57
Initial thoughts
Under the RCL, this reading is covered under 4 different Sundays
1-11 is Easter B and Epiphany 5C
12-20 is Epiphany 6C
19-28 is Easter C
51-57 is Epiphany 8C (which is very rare to get to)
Bible Study
Verses 1-11
You are saved through the good news, which is this:
“Christ died for our sins. He was buried, and on the third day he rose.”
The proof of his resurrection is in all those that saw it:
(Leaves out the women who first witnessed the resurrection. Paul’s letters predate Gospels, so he may not have been privy to that information, or he may have intentionally left it out of his account. It is hard to believe that Gospel writers would have inserted it because women were not trustworthy witnesses)
Peter
The Twelve
500 others, some still alive.
James
Rest of the Apostles
Me (Paul)
The power of God rests on the reality of the resurrection.
The resurrection of Christ is the keystone upon which all of Christianity is built.
If there is no resurrection, then death on Cross is the end of the story.
If there is no resurrection, then there is no point in Jesus’ life. There is no good news. There is just the execution of a righteous man.
Nadia Bolz Weber (paraphrase) “I don’t think the early martyrs died for a good story, or for a good feeling they had after Jesus died.”
Go beyond lection, and see that Jesus’ resurrection is about more than just who Jesus is, it is about who we are promised to be. We are invited to be resurrection people, but if the first resurrection didn’t happen, then we are simply lost.
Clearly trying to convince Corinthians of a few things
Paul didn’t make this stuff up.
Resurrection is important.
Grace does not come from merit.
Verses 12-20
Last week was the beginning of the answer of v. 12:
“If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection?”
Paul is addressing Corinthians who believed there is no resurrection - a concern that persisted into the second-century and even today:
In his debate with Trypho the Jew, Justin acknowledges that there are “some who are called Christians ... who say that there is no resurrection of the dead [anastasis nekrōn], and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven.” Against such “godless, impious heretics,” Justin takes an uncompromising stand: “Do not imagine that they are Christians” (Dialogue with Trypho).
Richard Hays’s characterization of the Corinthian argument: “The resurrection of Jesus is a wonderful metaphor for the spiritual change that God works in the lives of those who possess knowledge of the truth. “Resurrection” symbolizes the power of the Spirit that we experience in our wisdom and our spiritual gifts. But the image of resuscitated corpses (anastasis nekrōn) is only for childish fundamentalists. Those of us who are spiritual find it repugnant.” (Interpretation: 1 Corinthians)
The difficulty is that this once (and possibly still) heretical believe is common among modern Christians.
Bodily Resurrection
anastasis nekrōn, translated as the resurrection of the dead literally means “the rising of corpses”. A fleshy resurrection.
Counter to the new-platonic world view that the rational soul would finally be freed of its flawed and fleshy prison.
However it is unclear that Paul means the resuscitation of a dead body. Later (vv. 35-49) Paul will argue the foolishness of that claim. There is a resurrection but our bodies will be completely changed - like a seed to a plant.
“The resurrected body - including the body of Jesus - is a spiritual body: raised imperishable, raised in glory, raised in power. Clearly the resurrected body is not imply a physical body restored to life… We note that all of this is in a chapter that also includes a verse often cited by some Christians to defend a physical bodily resurrection (15:14)... but the verse has a very different meaning when set in the context of the chapter as a whole. Resurrection is not about coming back to life in a form similar to one’s form before death. Rather, the difference is as great as the difference between a seed that is sown and the full-grown plant that emerges.” (Crossan and Borg, The First Paul, p, 151)
The First Fruits
Christ is the beginning glimpse of the eschatological resurrection
The resurrection Paul has in mind is NOT eternity in heaven upon death, but rather the eschatological vision of unity with God when the Kingdom of God is fully realized.
To claim there is no resurrection is not only to deny the victory of life over death and love over fear, but also denies the culminating Kingdom of God initiated by Christ’s resurrection. If Christ was not raised, then the Kingdom is not at hand. (Jerry Irish, Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration)
To deny the bodily resurrection is to deny the resurrection of Jesus, which is to deny the Good News:
If the resurrection is not real then:
The proclamation is in vain (v.14) and we are false witnesses about God (v. 15)
Our faith is in vain (v. 14) and futile (v.17) and we are still bound by our sins (v. 17)
Those who have died in Christ (and otherwise) are lost forever. (v. 18)
In other words- if there is no resurrection, then death wins and love dies
THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS
Easter matters. All of what we do rests on this idea that Christ was raised from the dead. Everything is for naught if there is no resurrection. What however, is the nature of the resurrection. As Paul said, we were born at the wrong time. Can we still be witnesses to the resurrection of Christ? Clearly, Paul’s witness of the Resurrection was different than that of Peter, but was just as life-altering. What about our experience of the Resurrection.
“Paul’s conviction that God had raised Jesus was grounded in his own experience of the risen Christ. It was not based upon stories such as those reported in the gospels. The pre-Damascus Paul had almost certainly heard the claim that God had raised Jesus. The claim had no persuasive power until his Damascus experience.” (Crossan and Borg, The First Paul, p. 151)
Resurrection is not awarded by merit. There is no deserving resurrection. There is only God’s grace. Response to grace is also important. If we do not respond to grace by sharing the good news, then the grace is “for nothing.” How do we respond to the threat of cheap grace? How do we make the resurrection count?
Go back to last week- the appearance of Jesus are the evidence of the resurrection and culminating Kingdom of God. It is evidence:
“Jesus Christ is no less a presence in our world than in Paul's, but are we aware of that presence? Can we abandon our multitude of distractions, many of them rooted in the same status seeking that plagued the church in Corinth, long enough to experience God's love and live our lives in response to that love? As in today's reading, Paul's theology always couples death and resurrection, Christ's and our own. Marcus Borg writes that "death and resurrection become a metaphor for the internal spiritual process that lies at the heart of the Christian path." That process entails the death of our self-seeking ego, ...With that death comes a resurrection, a gift of new life empowered by God's gracious love.” (Jerry Irish, Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration.)
Resurrection acts as the divine stamp that marks Jesus’ life and ministry with victory. It moved Christianity from a ethical code to pursuing a transformed life.
How many of our church members are seeking transformation? How many are seeking a moral compass?
Why does the resurrection matter? Does it have to be a bodily resurrection?
What do we mean when we talk about resurrection? Does our faith, as Paul claims, rely on belief in the bodily resurrection? If it doesn’t then what are the fundamentals of our faith?
Opening music: Misirlou, One Man 90 Instruments by Joe Penna/MysteryGuitarMan at MIM
Closing Song by Bryan Odeen