There are four things that we learn early in life: 1) That Santa Claus brings presents at Christmas; 2) that the Easter Bunny brings colored eggs and candy at Easter; 3) that the Tooth Fairy puts money under the pillow; and 4) that God made us, saved us from sin, and loves us. Then we learn that the first three are not true. What is it that keeps us believing in the fourth?¹

What is it that keeps us believing? What is it that makes us – and keeps us – Christians amid all of life’s changing values and its complex problems?

It is very simply one thing: belief in the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead: On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures...² We say that every Sunday of the year. It is the essential belief to being and remaining a follower of Jesus Christ. And we Christians believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life for all of humanity. Period. That’s what makes the resurrection – and the Christian life – so difficult for some people to accept.

Even some Christian churches have trouble with concept of the resurrected Christ and his claim on the whole of humanity. One writer explained it this way:

At the present time there is uncertainty in the churches whether it is imperative to preach the gospel to people of other faiths. Do not all religions say the same thing, only in different idioms? Isn’t it arrogant of us to think that we have ‘the truth’? The church has a peculiar truth to preach and we must preach it, that Jesus’ death and resurrection is God’s way of reconciling the whole world unto himself, that this is God’s self-appointed means of salvation to all.

Without the resurrection, we are without hope. With the resurrection, through all the difficulties of life, we can go on because we know the end of the story. That end is in the hands of the God who raised crucified Jesus from the dead. Without the resurrection, we have nothing to say to a hurting, unsteady world. With the resurrection, we have good news. Say that good news in all that you do.³

Truly without the resurrection, we are without hope in all the seasons of our lives. With the resurrection, we can not only endure life, we can triumph in life.

A pastor told of the following experience with one of his parishioners:

[The woman said:] “I’m cancer free.”

“Wonderful!” I said. Having been with her as her pastor through months of difficult treatments, it was wonderful to be there to celebrate with her. The one who was considered “terminally ill” had now been fully restored to health.

“Yes, wonderful, but also a bit disconcerting,” she said.

“How do you mean that?”

“Well, I took the doctors at their word. They said I was terminal, that there was little chance that the therapy would be successful. So I planned to live for about a year and then die. That was what they told me to expect. Now, to be told that I have many more years to live, that I have a future, well, it’s just a bit disconcerting. I’ve got to go ahead and live despite my plans to die!”

On reason people find the resurrection difficult to believe is that it is demanding!⁴

The resurrection does demand something from us. It demands that we live what we say that we believe. It’s easy to say that we believe in something, but quite another thing often to live as if we believe it.

William Willimon told of his first church.

My first church was in rural Georgia. I was fresh out of seminary, eager to be a good pastor in my first parish. ….

[On] my first visit to one of the churches, I found a large chain and a padlock on the front door, put there, I was told by the local Sheriff. “The Sheriff, why?” I asked.

“Well, things got out of hand at a board meeting last month; folks started ripping up carpet, dragging out the pews they had given in memory of their mothers. It got bad. The Sheriff came out here and put that lock on the door until our new preacher could come and settle things down.”

That rather typified my time at that church. I would drive out there each Sunday, just praying for a miraculous snowstorm in October which would save me from another Sunday at that so-called church.

I spent a year there that lasted a lifetime. I tried everything. I worked, I planned, I taught, I pled but the response was always disappointing. The arguments, the pettiness, the fights in the parking lot after the board meeting were more than I could take. It was tough and I was glad to be leaving them behind.

“You call yourself a church” I muttered as my tires kicked up gravel in the parking lot on my last Sunday among them.

A couple of years later…I ran into a young man who told me that he was now serving that church. My heart went out to him. Such a dear young man, and only twenty-three!

“They still remember you out there,” he said.

“Yes,” I said glumly, “I remember them, too.”

“Remarkable bunch of people,” he said.

“Remarkable,” I said.

“Their ministry to the community has been a wonder,” he continued. “That little church is now supporting, in one way or another, more than a dozen of the troubled families around the church. The free day care center is going great….”

I could hardly believe what he was telling me. “What happened?” I asked.

“I don’t know. One Sunday, things just sort of came together. It wasn’t anything in particular. It’s just that, when the service was done, and we were on our way out, we knew that Jesus loved us and had plans for us. Things fairly much took off after that.”

I’ll tell you what I think happened. I think that church got intruded upon. I think someone greater than I knocked the lock off that door, kicked it open and offered them peace, the Holy Spirit, mission and forgiveness.” ⁵

That’s what the resurrection does to us. It opens our lives to the presence of the Risen Christ in his church and in his world. But there is also some risk involved. We may be changed by the Risen Lord, not be the same people we were before. We may be called to do new things, to see life differently, to see those around us in a new light, filled with hope and the possibilities for change.

It is the resurrection which keeps us Christian.