Magyar Egyház, 2005 (84. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)

2005-01-01 / 1. szám

8. oldal

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

Miracle of the Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:20.

“But now is Christ risen from the dead” is one of the most extraordinary claims ever made by sane men. Yet it is made by the writers of the Gospels and by Paul. Of all the miracles of Jesus’s life, there are only two recorded by all four Gospels, the feeding of the five thousands and the Resurrection of our Lord. The Bible mentions at least six other persons who were raised from the dead, but none of them has stirred up a ripple on the mind and heart of man. These other individuals, who came to life when everyone thought they were dead, are scarcely mentioned again, while the fact that Jesus overcame the grave is the keynote of the rest of the New Testament.

The prophet Elijah raised from the dead the son of the widow of Zarephath. Elisha performed a similar miracle upon the son of the woman of Shunem. Peter, through prayer, brought back to life Tabitha, or Dorcas, a woman full of good works and charitable gifts. There are three different occasions when Jesus raised people from the dead. The first occasion, related in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, is that of the raising of the daughter of Jairus. Jesus took the twlve year old girl by the hand and said, “Maid, arise” (Luke 8:54) The Gospel of Luke mentions the resurrection of the son of the widow of Nain. To him Jesus said, “Young man ! Get up, I tell you !” (Luke 7:14) The Gospel of John gives the story of the raising of Lazarus, who had been laid away in a tomb. To him Jesus cried, “Lazarus, come out !” (John 11:43) This resurrection was the occasion for the teaching of Jesus: “I am the resurrection, and the life, whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

When John the Baptist from the prison sent messengers to ask if Jesus were the Messiah, our Lord said to them, among other things, “Go back and tell John what you are hearing and seeing: ... the dead are brought back to life” (Matthew

JESUS AS MESSIAH

The word "Messiah" means "Anointed One," the name given to the promised Deliverer who would some day come to the people of Israel as their great Savior and Redeemer, "anointed" as Prophet, Priest, and King by God Himself.

Some, of course, are still looking for the fulfillment of these Old Testament promises in the future, when the "Messiah" will come to establish a world kingdom of peace and justice centered around the chosen nation, Israel.

On the other hand, the group of Jewish believers who became the first founders of Christianity were convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was their promised Messiah. The name "Christ" is the Greek equivalent of "Messiah," so that the name Jesus Christ really means "Jesus the Messiah," or "Jesus

11:4-5) But what matters most is not how many other people were raised from the dead, but that Jesus himself was raised from the dead. In fact the word resurrection is almost always used to mean the Resurrection. In the triumph of Jesus over the grave we find confirmation of some convictions about the future life.

Future life is possible. There is a wonderful note of victory in what Jesus heard at the Transfiguration about death - not as a burden to be borne, but rather of “the way in which he would soon fulfill God’s purpose by dying in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). The future life is a conviction of the heart which can be confirmed by outer facts, but which can never be proved as a mathematical formula. In the most assured fact of the New Testament, the Resurrection of Christ, we find confirmation of the trust that future life is possible - and more.

This future life is a different and a better kind of life. It is not just a continuation of the present, for ever and ever amen.

Few women would want to go on doing household chores for eternity. Few men would want to go on selling something for ever and ever. Much as we like preaching, we are not sure that we would look forward to the strain of preaching to all eternity. Death is going to destroy the kind of life we now live. Death must be taken in all seriousness - no amount of embalming or floral tributes can hide the cold, stark fact. What comes is a different kind of life. Christianity does not teach the eternity of this life. What resurrection means is not a going-on of the kind of life we know. It means a brand new kind of life - eternal life.

This eternal life, little as we know about it, will not be strange, but will be like going home. At least it will be that way for those who know and love God, as he is revealed in Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke of it as “may Father’s house” (John 14:2). When you know the father, a house can never be strange. Paul spoke of the future life as being “at home with the Lord” (2.Corinthians 5:8). It’s what we don’t know that we fear. That is why it is so important to know God. When we know God we see death, not as an unwilling voyager through savage seas, but as a weary traveler who turns his face to his father’s home.

the anointed." They preached this truth with such conviction and power that not only many Jews but, later, a still greater host of Gentiles, believed on Jesus, both as the Christ and also as the Lord and Savior of all men.

And indeed they had good reason for such faith. The Old Testament Messianic prophecies were found to be uniquely fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. There are hundreds of these prophecies, so that the possibility of their accidental convergence on any ordinary man is completely ruled out by the laws of probability.

Some of the prophecies are so framed, in fact, as to preclude their fulfillment by anyone living after the first century A.D. For example, the patriarch Jacob said, in Genesis 49:10, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come." The name "Shiloh" is a title of the Messiah, and the prophecy states that Judah's tribe would remain the chief tribe in Israel, in particu-