by David Faulkner
The philosophers of Athens were puzzled. A strange Jew had wandered in from the hills to the north and been abandoned by his friends. After wandering around their city for awhile he had the audacity to start preaching some new religion on their streets. They thought they knew all about Jews and their belief in one God. But this strange Jew actually seemed to be preaching two gods. At least there were two words or names that he seemed to use all the time. The first was a Jewish name, Jesus, which he tended to pronounce yeshua. The second was a Greek word they had never heard used the way this Jew used it; Anastasis. Was it another god,, or was it something he was claiming Jesus had done and that all Jesus’ followers would do?
All the philosophies of the ancient world had been proclaimed at some time in Athens and there were various systems of thought present there at the time the strange Jew arrived. But the most important “schools” were the Stoics and the Epicureans. One day a mixed group of them happened to catch a bit of the strange Jew’s sermon. “Do you Epicureans know what this babbler is talking about?” asked a Stoics. “Not at all,” replied the Epicurean. “We’re more confused than you are, since we were out partying all last night.” So they talked it over and agreed that as soon as the Epicureans had recovered from their hangovers, they would all meet at the usual place for philosophical discussions, on top of Mars Hill, and invite the babbler to explain himself. He might just get a few laughs, even from the Stoics.
So they assembled their council, the Areopagus, and invited the babbler to come address them. They explained the reason for the gathering, then asked the strange Jew to expound his unusual philosophy. The babbler was, of course, the apostle Paul and he was very glad of the chance to speak. He’d been walking around taking notes in Athens. It was an impressive city, full of statues and temples. The Athenians wanted to have all the religious bases covered. But in case they had overlooked anybody in the deities department, they had put up an altar to, “An Unknown God.” It wasn’t two gods Paul was preaching but one, and so he seized upon their odd compulsion not to leave any gods out to explain about the God they didn’t know.
You can read this story in Acts 17:17-34. Paul made it clear that he was a true follower of the Jewish God. This God did not dwell atop some distant mountain. No, He was near to everyone. Desiring to be even nearer He had come as a man in the person of Jesus Christ, died for our sins, and risen again. At this point the philosophers of Athens had hard enough. They adjourned their meeting, declaring that they would hear more of this stuff later. The very notion of anastasis seems to have unsettled them. Whoever heard of anyone rising from the dead? What would such an idea do to all their carefully nurtured, discussed and debated philosophy?
If we learn nothing else from Paul’s experience in Athens, we should learn how important the idea of resurrection (anastasis) was to the early Christians. They were Easter people. The resurrection of Jesus was so important to them that they even changed the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday to show their commitment to a risen Savior. But their belief in resurrection looked not only back to that of Jesus Christ, but forward to their own. That is the point of Paul’s great treatise on the subject, found in I Corinthians 15.
In I Corinthians 15, Paul shows that all Christianity hangs on one central fact: Jesus rose from the dead. He says some astounding things about it. He says that if Jesus hasn’t risen, “Our preaching is vain and so is your faith,” (v. 14), “we [apostles] are shown to be false witnesses,” (v. 15), “those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost,” and finally, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” But the most important statement is in verse 17; “If Christ has not been raised your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”
Why is this so? Because by raising Jesus from the dead God did more than simply proclaim that Jesus was the Son of God with power (Romans 1:4). He also showed that the sacrifice for sin Jesus made was acceptable to Him. Had there been no Easter, the death of Jesus would have been no more than another in the long series of unjust judicial murders perpetrated by an unbelieving establishment. But when He raised Jesus God showed us that He has accepted what Jesus did as full atonement for our sins. The events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter form the parts of one whole, the individual acts of one drama, all of which had to be completed for our salvation to be achieved.
Resurrection was the major hope for believers living during and just after Jesus’ time. When Jesus told Martha, “Your brother will rise again,” she replied, “I know he will rise at the last day,” (John 11:23, 24). Paul’s comment mentioned above, that if Jesus gives us hope for this life alone we are of all people most to be pitied, shows how vital resurrection was to the early Church. These days many of us seem to have lost that hope. I think this is because we get so much more pleasure from this life than did they. Pain, disease, suffering–these were the common lot for people in those days. Things were a long time getting better. None of us will have to put up with the annoyance George Washington must have experienced because of his wooden teeth. When we comfort the grieving, we usually say that the deceased has “gone home to be with the Lord,” or that his/her spirit is now in Heaven. We usually wouldn’t say, “Your brother will rise again.” Even those who believe that the resurrection (rapture) comes before the Great Tribulation (I am not one of them) move quickly past resurrection to the part where God fries all the wicked unbelievers.
It is true, there are some Christians who have cause to hope in the resurrection. I look forward to being able to see everything perfectly and to finding out what this “depth perception” thing you all keep talking about really is. Those, like my friend Stephen, who has never walked, and my friend David, who is blind, surely have something to look forward to in the resurrection– or at least that’s the way many of the rest of ou see it. Perhaps once you get really elderly you’ll feel a bit differently. But the truth is, you should feel differently about it now. If there’s no hope of our resurrection, indeed if our being raised again isn’t central to our faith, then what is the point of faith at all. God doesn’t just redeem our spirits. He saves us body and soul, and whatever eternal life may be, and whatever the state of the soul after death, it is incomplete and less than God intends until we are resurrected in body. God’s purpose is to redeem creation, not destroy it (Romans 8:20-23). Our bodies are a part of that creation and we ought never to forget that there is a resurrection in store for us. The “blessed hope” of the early Church should be as real for us as it was for them, and we should proclaim it as faithfully and enthusiastically as Paul did in Pagan Athens. You think you’re young and strong now, but it’s nothing compared to what you will be then.
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