Exploring the Scripture
Today is Resurrection Day. Today is Easter sermon day—the sermon of the Christian year. All Sundays, from Advent to Christmas to Epiphany and through Lent and Passion Week, lead to this day. All Sundays after this Sunday—six more of Easter until Pentecost, followed by Ordinary Time, are measured from today. Easter is a “meridian of time,” movable feast day.
What can one say that is fresh and revitalizing on Easter Sunday? To preach today is an honor, though the assignment can weigh more heavily and instill more anxiety than on other Sundays. Let it not be so for you. Yes, accept the responsibility and challenge, but as you bear the weight and shoulder the “yoke,” know you walk beside the One through whom death shall be destroyed.
On all the Emmaus roads of life, he accompanies, he assures, he teaches, he breaks and shares bread with you.
We look back across the year and know death in family, congregation, and nation. “All die in Adam” (v. 22) we read in today’s text. Jesus died. Our beloved ones die. We will die. However, after those four sobering words, we find this standout Easter morning declaration: “all will be made alive in Christ” (v. 22). Resurrection has the final word. We are God’s Easter people.
First Corinthians, one of several letters Apostle Paul (with Sosthenes as scribe) sent to the saints at Corinth, was written about 53–54 CE. Chapter 15 includes Paul’s developing doctrine of the resurrection. Later letters suggest his evolving theology about its meaning.
We may struggle with statements or imagery in today’s text. Jesus crowned and seated on the throne at the right hand of God, for example. We might question the timeline of Christ’s return and the resurrection of believers—a timeline Paul understood differently in later years. His view of resurrection was one of several interpretations in the early church. The sermon is not the time to include this information (that’s for a scripture-study class), but it is helpful to study commentaries as you pray the text.
Paul’s encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus, followed by his years of transformative mission, is testimony to the reality of the resurrection. Paul’s “resurrected” life is more powerful than his words.
You will preach to a congregation with varying perspectives about the resurrection accounts and their meaning in the present. But, across that spectrum, much inspires hope and gives meaning and direction to each person and congregation.
This Sunday, above all Sundays, we pray worshipers’ hearts and minds, ears and eyes, may open to these truths:
- Christ is alive—He continues to heal, transform, and create a loving community in and around us today. He can turn our crucifixions into resurrections.
- Jesus is Lord—The earthly “lords” who oppressed the common folk, who crucified Jesus, may have won the day, but they did not win the past, the future, or the present. God said “no” to them and “yes” to Jesus. God says the same now.
- Easter is a symbol of hope that transforms hopelessness as we listen to the cries of the planet and its people. Hope is born from the belief that there is another way. Hope is shown in acts of love.
Project Zion Podcast
Hosts Karin Peter and Blake Smith consider how this week's scripture connects to our lives today.
Central Ideas
- Christ is alive—a living reality today, healing, transforming, and creating. He is risen and can be found at work in the world.
- Easter is hope—hope for a different world. “Easter is a defiant hope against the grain,” says one commentator. “It cannot be proved. It can only be tried” (billloader.com, Easter Day: 17 April 1 Corinthians 15:19–26).
Questions to Consider
- Enter the biblical account(s) of Easter once again. Slowly. Deeply. What words and images from the text speak to you?
- What does Paul’s doctrine of resurrection in today’s text offer you?
- How has the Risen Christ changed, challenged, and blessed you in the past and now?
- What is your deepest hope this Easter Sunday?