… and Easter is for skeptics.
We might have this subtle idea that people who lived in the 1st century AD were more gullible than we are. You know, they didn't have the science and stuff we do so they must have been ignorant or superstitious, right?
(Have you ever noticed that we tend to think the people who came before us weren’t quite as smart as us?)*
If someone you knew and trusted came to you and (excitedly) told you his loved one who died recently had been resurrected, at best you would be confused. Your friend is usually a trustworthy person, so the "crazy talk" like someone rising from the dead might be coming from excess grief or stress.
The surrealness of that conversation would have been the surrealness of the conversations Jesus’ disciples had about his resurrection! They were not all that much different than we are; they would have been just as surprised…and skeptical.
But, Resurrection Sunday is for skeptics like them, and skeptics like us. We might agree with the reality that Jesus was resurrected (and is alive now!), but do we rely on that fact? We are still skeptics in some ways, even if we believe.
What matters more than our feelings (or how much we agree that Jesus’ resurrection happened) is whether or not Jesus’ resurrection is true? Did Jesus rise from the dead?
If he didn’t. Move on from him. He is a dead teacher among a list of dead teachers. It would be foolish to base your life off of a dead man.
But if he did defeat death and is alive now, what difference does that make? I mean, what real, everyday, difference does His life make?
If he is alive, wouldn’t be foolish not to go all in with him?
Join us Sunday evening as we celebrate the reality that the Jesus in the pages of scripture is the Jesus who is (fully, irrevocably) alive today…and he makes all the difference for skeptics like us.
*C.S. Lewis called that "chronological snobbery” and we all have a touch of it, at least.