Mennonite Weekly Review

Jesus is alive! At Easter we celebrate and proclaim that Jesus of Nazareth was not just a prophet of the past but the Christ who lives today.

“Before Abraham was born, I am,” Jesus said (John 8:58). Even when speaking about the past, Jesus did not describe himself in the past tense. Nor do we today. Death could not confine him to a place in history.

The Easter witnesses — first the women at the tomb, then the disciples — saw Jesus alive. And the appearances did not stop there. Quietly on the Emmaus road, blindingly on the Damascus road, majestically on the island of Patmos, Jesus Christ revealed his victory over death. His face shone like the sun as he told John: “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!” (Rev. 1:18).

Ever since, followers of Jesus have continued to know Christ as the Living One. In Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: the Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith (1994), Marcus J. Borg writes: “The living, risen Christ of the New Testament has been an experiential reality (and not just an article of belief) from the days of Easter to the present.”

It’s a bold claim to say we are experiencing a present-tense Savior rather than believing in a past-tense hero. A skeptic might say it goes way beyond what is necessary. A dynamic prophet or enlightened teacher who died and stayed dead makes a perfectly good basis for a religion. Jesus’ followers didn’t need to invent a resurrection to keep his influence alive.

But not only did they claim Jesus came back to life, they staked their entire faith on it. The Apostle Paul wrote, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless, and so is your faith” (1 Cor. 15:14). Paul was willing to risk his life and mission on the reality of the resurrection. He seems to say: Drawn to Jesus for a great system of ethics or philosophy of life? Not enough! The resurrection is what it’s all about.

To the modern or postmodern mind, that’s doing it the hard way. Believe the impossible, or don’t believe at all?

But here’s the key: We don’t have to depend on abstract belief, as if we could be convinced just by thinking hard enough. A faith that’s no more than a mental exercise would be worthless anyway.

Instead, we can be convinced by experience. Just as Jesus’ disciples physically experienced a relationship with Jesus as a living person, we can spiritually experience a relationship with Jesus as a living person.

We experience Christ’s presence in many ways: when music lifts our spirits, when Scripture gives comfort or knowledge, when family members’ love brings joy, when a faith community’s support gives strength, when we serve those in need or are served by others. All these are Christ with us and in us.

“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Praise the living Christ!