THE RESURRECTION AND THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE
Dear Friends,
Imagine you are driving in very rural Ontario. You come to a small village, 1000 people or less. You decide to stop for lunch in the diner across from the one stop light. As you order your meal, you notice a young couple in quiet, intense, conversation. Half-way through your meal, the young woman suddenly stands up; cries out, “No more. I’m taking the kids.” She then slaps the young man and stalks out. He remains seated and starts to quietly cry. You sit there, shaken. You look to your neighbour and say, “Wow, I wonder what that was all about?” Now, consider three different answers, all to the same event. In the first option, your neighbour says, “I don’t know either.” Then you both go back to eating. In the second option, your neighbour says, “Oh that is probably terrible news. That’s my niece and her husband. She runs around on him. She bosses and pushes him around. He finally convinced her to go with him for marriage counselling. They stop here for coffee on their way back. It looks like she is back to her old ways.” Now consider a third option. This time your neighbour says, “Wow, this is probably good news! That’s my niece and her husband. He bullies and belittles her, and she keeps putting up with it. Maybe she is finally standing up for herself and taking action.”
The point is, that while seeing and knowing about an event is important, unless you know the meaning of the event, you do not really know what happened. This helps us to better understand the death and resurrection of Jesus. Three points.
First, did Jesus die on the cross? Was the grave empty? Did many people claim to see Him alive after His resurrection? There are solid historical reasons to say, “yes” to each of these points. One under appreciated witness is a man named John. He wrote one of the eyewitness accounts of Jesus. Many people today claim that his eye witness account should not be taken as true history, but as some other type of writing – one concerned with symbol and metaphor rather than true fact. But here is where John is really important. We know that he knows the difference between writing true fact and writing something full of metaphor and symbol (and still true). We have two books that he wrote, one an historical account of Jesus, now known as The Gospel of John. The other is a book overflowing with symbol and metaphor – now known as The Book of Revelation. “Gospel” means good news. So his historical account of Jesus, including the resurrection, should be taken as a historical account.
Second, what is the meaning of the facts? Remember my intro? To know the facts without knowing the true meaning is to know virtually nothing. In my intro, the traveller in the first option can only tell others about something unsettling that they saw. In the second and third option, the traveller can say what really happened. But note that the meaning changes the story. The second and third options tell the same facts, but two completely different stories. Did you notice in my example how the meaning was embedded in a short story? It is hard to have meaning without a story. So it is with the facts about Jesus. If we had no story, there would be no meaning. If the story made clear that He was deluded and died, then we have a sad story, one that would no longer be remembered. But the facts about Jesus are in fact to be understood as part of a wonderful and true story. The very thing that sceptics use to deride the four eye witness accounts of Jesus – that they are told in the form of a mere story – is in fact central to us not only knowing what happened, but the meaning of what happened. Jesus Himself not only tells us the meaning of what He does, but He places His life, death and resurrection in the context of a big overarching story that our Jewish friends call the Tanach, and we Christians call the Old Testament. So from two sources, the words of Jesus now vindicated because of His death and resurrection, and from the ancient story of the Old testament, also now vindicated by the death and resurrection of Jesus, we see this deep and multifaceted story, the greatest story ever told. You see, Jesus did not just do things, He also gives the meaning and significance.
Third, why does any of this matter to me? The story of Jesus, the meaning and significance of His life, death, and resurrection is told because it is for ordinary people like you and me. This true story is told so that when you hear it, you will respond with humble penitence and longing to be included in His story. When you respond in this way, the way that Jesus wants you to respond, you are included in Him and His story. You will have left the old story of your life where sin and death wins, and you are now included in the story and person of Jesus where He saves you. You begin to live in a new story, one that transforms even your past, where everything is now for your eternal good, the true good of others, and for the great glory of the Triune God. It will be a story that has eternal life and ends with eternal life.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, to the end that all who believe in Him, will not parish, but have eternal life.” The words of Jesus as recorded by John, chapter 3, verse 16.
George+