Smoke and Mirrors

Smoke and Mirrors

A few days ago I was eating dinner with family, including my 7 year old niece. We began a discussion of Easter and what it means. When we got beyond the egg hunts and the Easter bunny, I began teaching her about why we celebrate Easter as the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Niece: “But he wasn’t REALLY dead. Right?”

Joanna: “No, he really did die. He was killed and was dead for many days before he beat death and everything we did wrong and he came back to life!”

Niece: “He came back to life? After he was dead?… That’s kinda creepy…”

The walking dead. You’re right, little niece, in some ways it is creepy and strange to think about Jesus dying and coming back to life. In our context, the only things that seem to do that are zombies on TV, and the recent Toronto Maple Leafs playoff comeback.

But Jesus really did, in fact most definitely rise from the dead. Many witnessed his death, as executed by professional executioners. Thousands saw him living again- in fact the Bible says many saw him and at the time of that writing some were still alive and could share their eye witness accounts!

At first even his closest followers were weirded out by this walking dead man; fully alive in bodily form and eating with them. Yet soon they were convinced, with many taking this witness of Jesus resurrected all the way to their own deaths.

All of Christianity hinges on whether Jesus rose from the dead (physically, not just spiritually). If he didn’t come back to life, everything we believe is smoke and mirrors, and Christians should be pitied above all other people. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, in The Message.

Want to know more about the logical, rational, historic defense of Jesus risen from the dead? Check out the sermon series “Smoke and Mirrors” we did at my church: www.c4church.com/sermons/smoke-and-mirrors/