The resurrection.
The tomb is empty. Scholars and historians across the board agree that the tomb was empty. It is more historical fact than obtuse fan fiction. Christ wasn’t there. Something had happened.
If he’s not raised, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthian 15, our faith is in vain. There’s no point in any of it. “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” If he is raised, however, that changes our allegiance and makes his teachings and call to follow him truly. The resurrection ties the theology of Christ together and solidifies the character of God that he has shown us. It proves that something drastic happened on Good Friday and that a revolution really did begin. It offers hope in the face of hopelessness and a relationship with the creator.
I know when I have days where my faith seems weird or not worth following, the truth of the resurrection sustains me in my pursuit. It is the great transitory moment in human history. Nothing was ever the same again. Nor will it ever be again. The new creation has dawned. The garden is back. Where death once was, is now live once again. And I would rather follow life and the hope of it, because that’s what a good gardener does, make more life.
“On the third day, the friends of Christ coming at day-break to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of a gardener God walked again in the garden, not in the cool of the evening, but in the dawn.” –G.K. Chesterton
Image: ‘Resurrection’ by Ivan Filichev, 1992.

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