Sunday 16/02/25

Third Sunday before Lent

Luke 6:17-26

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

‘Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. […] If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then also those who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.’  Paul, in the first letter to the Corinthians, is focussing on the reality of the resurrection of the dead in a logical argument: if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ could not have been raised.  And as this is the basis of salvation, so the faith of the believers would be in vain.  An important assessment of the doctrine of salvation that sums it up in a nutshell.  This is what it is about. And this is what can be a stumbling block for those who cannot see what Christ has done. 

In Luke’s Gospel, chapter 6, we find Jesus himself speaking, as in a similar account in Matthew 5; what we call the Beatitudes.  Luke too, records Jesus’ upside-down teaching: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.’  It has been said before, that God’s Kingdom is upside-down.  The rich are poor, the poor are rich; the hungry are filled, the filled are empty.  When it comes to an assessment of the economic state of people today, we can say that that doesn’t make sense.  Or, at best it would be a glib way of speaking about the plight of those who are suffering.  But in view of the resurrection it does make sense!  It is not a way to dismiss other people’s despair.  Rather, it is offering the hope of salvation through faith.

Some people are still arguing about the resurrection, just as they were in Paul’s day.  A bit like: if I haven’t seen it with my own eyes it can’t be true.  Or if science can’t work it out, I won’t believe it.  Yet, there is nothing that is so well-documented by witnesses as the resurrection!  All the in-depth studies of many scholars throughout the centuries have come to that conclusion.  But sometimes it takes a willingness to see.  We say that we can miss the things that are right under our noses!  And so we need faith to remind us of the truth.  Or perhaps we need to hear the truth to remind us of our faith.  In Paul’s argument for the resurrection, it is the truth that has been witnessed that makes the difference to faith, and, therefore, to our future.  Jesus said: ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven;’  Your reward is great in heaven.  Faith puts it within your reach.  God’s Kingdom is upside-down.  Christ won the victory over sin and death by dying on our behalf and rising from the dead.  Eternal life can be ours by accepting his work of salvation through faith.  Then, as we shall see, those who hunger for righteousness, will be filled, and those who weep now, will be comforted.  The offer is there, totally free, for all who want it.  May we not lose it through ignorance or pride, but take it and rejoice in our reward!  Amen.