NO GREATER LOVE: THE RESURRECTION CONFESSION

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In the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, written around A. D. 56, Paul gives us a confession of faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.” (1 Cor 15:3-9) St. Paul here is not giving a narration of any particular appearance but instead is confessing what the Church believes.

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In Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict tells us more about the confession from St. Paul. In the view of most exegetes, the original confession ends with verse 5, that is, with the appearance to Cephas and the Twelve. From further traditions, Paul added James, the group of over five hundred brethren, and "all" the Apostles-here he is evidently applying an understanding of "apostles" that extends beyond the circle of the Twelve. James is important because with him, Jesus' family, who had previously been decidedly ambivalent (cf. Mk 3:20-21, 31-35; Jn 7:5), enter the circle of believers and also because James is the one who assumed the leadership of the Mother Church in the Holy City after Peter's flight from Jerusalem. This confession of St. Paul tells us why the Church even exists. Without the Resurrection, Jesus is just one more charismatic individual whose followers dispersed once the leader was no longer there. The confession tells why they did not disperse. 

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This confession states that “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.” (1 Cor 15:3) In the book of Genesis, God tells Adam, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Gen 2:16-17) Adam and his wife Eve, did eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and were driven out of the Garden of Eden. “He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Gen 3:24) Since Adam had no access to the tree of life, he, and his posterity, had to die.

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St. Paul tells us, “Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned.” (Rom 5:12) The Resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that He, the new Adam, was not barred from the tree of life. The expiatory death of the Lord on the Cross was “in accordance with the Scripture.” The fourth Suffering Servant Song says, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with is stripes we are healed.” (Is 53:5) Scripture provided the answer as to why Jesus died on the Cross. 

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The confession given by St. Paul, then asserts that Jesus was “buried”. However, the Lord did not stay buried. The Pharisees had requested from Pilate that the tomb be sealed and guarded, and Pilate granted their request. (Mt 27:62-66) Joseph of Arimathea had already rolled a great stone at the mouth of the cave where the Lord was buried. (Mt 27:57-61) When the tomb was found empty on Sunday, the guards reported this to the chief priests. Then the chief priests and elders gave money to the guards and told them, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you our of trouble.” (Mt 28:13-14) We then learn “this story had spread among the Jews to this day.” (Mt 28:15) Even Mary Magdalene, when she first saw the empty tomb exclaimed, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” (Jn 20:13)

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What happened to the Body of Jesus? Did His disciples remove the Body and then claim He was raised by God? This makes the Christian proclamation a fraud. Was His Body taken by someone else and His disciples were too clueless to find out who and thus assumed He was raised by God? In that case the Christian proclamation is silly. Was the tomb empty because of a supernatural raising of Jesus? Modern theologians who reject the supernatural and yet maintain that there was a resurrection claim that it does not matter whether or not the tomb was empty. Of course, it does matter. How could the Apostles and early Christians proclaim that Jesus was raised from the dead if His Body was still in the tomb?

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If the Lord’s body stayed in the tomb, it would undergo corruption and return to the earth. The early Church knew that this did not happen. In St. Peter’s proclamation of the Resurrection in the book of Acts, he quotes the Greek version of Psalm 16:10 where King David prays, “For you Will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption.” (Acts 2:27) Peter then points out that this prophecy was not fulfilled in David who died and was buried; the tomb where he was buried still existed at the time of Peter. (Acts 2:29-32) This prophecy was fulfilled with the Resurrection of Jesus.

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Pope Benedict explains the thinking of the early Church on this matter. What the early Church deduced from the Septuagint version of Psalm 16:10 also determined the viewpoint of the entire patristic period. Resurrection essentially implies that Jesus' body was not subject to corruption. In this sense, the empty tomb is a strongly scriptural element of the Resurrection proclamation. Theological speculations arguing that Jesus' decomposition and Resurrection could be mutually compatible belong to modern thinking and stand in clear contradiction of the biblical vision. On this basis, too, we have further confirmation that a Resurrection proclamation would have been impossible if Jesus' body had been lying in the grave. 

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What really happened? Do we believe the biblical account written within a generation of the Resurrection, or do we believe the teachings of modern theologians that the Bible reflects a “prescientific” supernaturalist worldview which can no longer be accepted?

The Resurrection Confession of St. Paul then says that Jesus was raised on “the third day” after Friday, which was Sunday. (1 Cor 15:4) For Jews, Saturday was the day of rest and worship. This day of rest and worship was soon transferred by the Church to Sunday.

When Paul was collecting money for the Church in Jerusalem, he writes, “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come.” (1 Cor 16:2)

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When Paul left Greece on his way to Jerusalem, He stopped in Troas, in Asia Minor. St. Luke, in the book of Acts relates, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day.” (Acts 20:7)

The visions of St. John related in the book of Revelation also take place on Sunday.  “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, ‘Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.’” (Rev 1:10-11)

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Pope Benedict explains, For me, the celebration of the Lord’s day, which was a characteristic part of the Christian community from the outset, is one of the most convincing proofs that something extraordinary happened that day-the discovery of the empty tomb and the encounter with the risen Lord. The witnesses did not just have a subjective feeling that Jesus was “alive”. Something real had happened. For Jews, the Sabbath rest was one of the things which differentiated Jews from Gentiles. Only an earth-shaking event could cause the Jewish day of rest and worship to be transferred from the seventh day (Saturday) to the first day (Sunday).

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Finally, the confession of St. Paul ends with a list of witnesses which begins with “he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.” If this is the end of the original Jerusalem confession, to which Paul added additional witnesses, including himself, this is a confirmation of the hierarchical nature of the Church. Cephas (Peter) is listed first, then the Twelve Apostles, and then others.

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Pope Benedict explains this further. If being a Christian essentially means believing in the risen Lord, then Peter's special witnessing role is a confirmation of his commission to be the rock on which the Church is built. John, in his account of the risen Lord's threefold question to Peter, "Do you love me?" and Peter's threefold commissioning to feed Christ's flock, clearly underlined once more Peter's continuing mission vis-á-vis the faith of the whole Church (Jn 21:15-17). So the Resurrection account flows naturally into ecclesiology; the encounter with the risen Lord is mission, and it shapes the nascent Church. 

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The Church arose from the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. She did not arise from “below” but rather from “above”.  The Founder of this Church chose Peter and the Apostles to initially lead the Church. May the human failings of the leaders of this Church never cause us to lose site of the Divine Founder who still rules the Church. – Jim Nugent, CfP