The Manifestation of the Resurrection

I. “If Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith also is vain” (1 Cor. xv. 14). There is no more important fact than the Resurrection. It was the greatest of Our Lord’s miracles. He proposes it to the Jews as the final proof of His divine authority (Matt. xii. 39, 40). The Apostles considered themselves as appointed to witness to this in particular, and they rest the claim of their gospel on the fact that its author was Jesus, whom God raised from the dead the third day. They tell us too that all our hopes for this life and the next depend on the Resurrection; and that without it we should “be of all men the most miserable” (1 Cor. xv. 19). In consequence, we may call it the corner-stone of the Christian system, and of all that is built on Christianity, of the civilization of the world, and of all liberty, benevolence, morality, and well-being. The risen Christ not only lives now in His Human Nature, but He has a permanent life in the souls of His faithful followers. This life in us is a standing proof to the world of the truth and power of religion, it is one of the chief manifestations of God and recommendations of His law. Take care that Christ so live in you. Without this, your religion is vain as regards yourself, and powerless for any good influence in the world.

II. Consider the character of the evidence for the Resurrection. Our Lord remained on earth for forty days, and appeared at frequent intervals to St. Mary Magdalene, St. Peter and the disciples at Jerusalem and Emmaus, and to five hundred at once in Galilee. He submitted to the test demanded by St. Thomas, and at a later date appeared in vision to Saul, a most bitter opponent of Christianity, and converted him. These all bore witness to the miracle by word, by the tenor of their lives, and by their constancy under torments and martyrdom. The evidence of sight was granted but to the few; to others was given only the evidence of their testimony. “Him God raised up the third day, and gave Him to be made manifest, not to all the people, but to witnesses preordained of God” (Acts x. 40, 41). Our Lord might indeed have done more. He might have appeared in His glorious invulnerable body before the tribunals where He had been condemned. He might have had the miracle registered, like His birth, in the annals of the Roman Empire. But such is not the way of Divine Providence. God makes knowledge accessible to all, but He does not force conviction. Faith in divine truths is the product of sufficient evidence united to purity of soul, earnest desire, readiness to believe, humble submission and prayer. Cultivate these qualities, or the most obvious truths of religion will evade your merely natural powers.

III. The sufficiency of the evidence of the Resurrection is shown by its all but universal acceptance. Its sufficiency is shown even by the perversity of those who rejected it. They did not examine the case and give it a fair hearing. The chief priests determined not to recognize the Resurrection on any terms; they bribed the guards of the sepulchre, suppressed their testimony, and invented a theory of their own to explain the facts; this was widely promulgated, and, no doubt, deterred many from embracing Christianity. Such men are impervious to all proof. Had the miracle been forced upon them, it would have been to them no more than an isolated historical fact and not a saving truth. Intellectual consent might be compelled, but this would not constitute a meritorious act of faith in Jesus the Redeemer; their hearts would still have remained hardened against Him. Be on your guard that you do not imitate the Jews, and mistake obstinate resistance for frank sincerity.