The Resurrection Is Coming

“If you don’t think the Resurrection is preposterous, you’ve missed the point.”  

N.T. Wright, the brilliant English scholar, wrote that, and when I first read the words they shot through my brain like a bullet of angel light.

Even those among us who hold the harshest of hostility toward the Christian faith find it easy to accept that a man named Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth two thousand years ago.  They may even concede that his execution occurred.  But the idea that after crucifixion and burial, he rose again…that’s a thought they push into the box of fantasy.  

And to be honest, there are more than a few professors of religion and even pastors who dodge the sharp edges of Easter with rational-sounding ideas about a spiritual rebirth of intangible, emotional love—but not one flesh, blood and bone.

So I will tell you plainly:  I believe Jesus rose from his grave and stood and walked, that his disciples could feel him with their hands as well as with their hearts.

(Let me pause here and say that this morning, as I began my day with devotions, the first passage I saw was Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount:  “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them,” and this stopped me cold, as I was about to sit down and write.  I’m not trying to tell you I’m a better believer than anyone else.  I want to be honest with you and with myself—that’s what all real writing is and always has been for me.)

The Resurrection challenges me just as it does everyone else.  It is the Mount Everest of faith, and we all climb it…or we don’t.

As we move toward Easter, I’m going write about that preposterous, mind-blowing, universe re-ordering event—and why I believe it.

Randall