Everything about the Christian faith rests on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Everything about our hope, the way we live our lives, and the faith we put in God are totally dependent on Jesus rising from the grave three days after His crucifixion. One chapter earlier in Luke, we see our humble Savior take our place on the cross, suffer agonizing pain, and bury our sin in the dirt when He died. Now, that is amazing for a person to claim, to die for his brothers, for those that he loves. However, if Jesus did not rise again from the grave then everything that He has said is all a lie. All the faith and time that His disciples spent with Him were all in vain if there was no resurrection. Jesus would have just been another guy who said a lot of big words, performed some miracles, and then died a martyr’s death. However, that is not what happened.
On that blessed morning, a couple of women who were followers of Jesus decided to head to the tomb with the spices and ointments they had prepared to put on Jesus’ body. They were probably still mourning and missing their friend Jesus who had just been with them, alive, just a few days ago. As they approached, however, they saw that the stone was rolled away and Jesus’ body was nowhere to be found. I cannot imagine what was going through their mind at that moment. Then we get to verse 5 where some of the most amazing words are spoken by an angel of the Lord saying, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:5-6). That morning, everything had changed forever. Jesus truly was who He said He was. He truly was the one that came to this world, clothed Himself in flesh, lived a perfect life, died a terrible, humiliating death as the Son of God, and rose again three days later to offer sinners of the world the free gift of grace. There is now a way for redemption from sins, justification before the Father, and hope that will never be put to shame.
This is the amazing truth about Christianity and the biggest thing that sets it apart from all other religions and faiths. Paul addresses the necessity of the resurrection in his letter to the church in Corinth when he said, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). If Christ has not risen from the grave then none of this matters. The preaching of the pastors at this church is in vain. Those that spend their time serving and loving others are in vain. The outreach that we do at this church to save lost souls is in vain. Everything about the Christian faith is reduced to nothing if Jesus Christ stayed dead 2,000 years ago.
Paul even goes on further to say, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). If we put our hope in Christ only to get through the struggles of this life, and He has not risen, then we are to be the most pitied people on this planet. However, our God did not stay dead. He rose again, and now we have a hope that we are to share with everyone, that there is a Savior who died for the sins of the world, that whoever would believe in His name shall not perish but have everlasting life.