Joyful in hope. This has to be one of the strangest things about Christians. Followers of Jesus are enduringly hopeful. They’re not simply stoic, doggedly holding on to hard-won ideals in spite of reality. They’re not overwhelmed by the world, despite the grimness of the newsfeed. At the same time, they’re not indifferent to suffering, or withdrawn into cynical opinion-mongering. Christians are—in the midst of things—joyful in hope.
Why? Why this absurdity? Is it a great pretence, or an even greater delusion? So some have suggested. Christians have always wanted to affirm that they, too, are interested in the truth—indeed the deepest possible truth—of things. And that truth, and the joy and hope it gives rise to, turns on the astonishing resurrection of Jesus from the dead. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile”, writes Paul, anticipating the skeptics’ objections; “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:17,19). Either the resurrection happened, or it did not; either Jesus the King is alive and present to his Church and working in the world by the power of the Holy Spirit, or he is not. Either this joyful hope truly springs up from its source like an overflowing fountain, or it is the etheral fluff of a deluded and pitiable people. But if the resurrection of Jesus is true—well, it would change and challenge everything.
This Spring, it seems timely to take up exactly this question by returning to an essay that is pastorally wise and straightforwardly bold: Professor Murray Rae’s reflections on how the resurrection of Jesus challenges everything. The present trouble of the world leaves many of us, I sense, wrestling with a mix of anger and helplessness. In such times, we need again to let the gospel of Christ upset the prevailing assumptions about what reality is, about where hope lies, about the possibilities of God. Indeed, we need regularly to be shaken by the astonishing resurrection of Jesus, with all that it means for the world, and for those who follow the crucified, risen, and ascended King.
Now, Christian doctrine and Scripture can sometimes seem to be reality-adjacent: all very moving and great material for worship songs, but otherwise lacking purchase on the world and on our lives. But as one of my theology professors remarked to me once, truly reckoned with, there’s nothing more practical than Christian doctrine. If true, the resurrection of Jesus threatens all despair and complacency. It commands allegiance, and summons me to works of courage and witness for the sake of the world and the glory of God’s name. It requires we get with the programme—or turn away. It is the fulcrum of history and the possibility of life in the midst of a troubled world. And it results in practical action—and people who, regardless of present travail—are strangely and enduringly joyful in hope.
As you take up this essay, perhaps for the first time, may God bless you, and renew you in his service, and encourage you with the challenge of Christ’s victory: death will not prevail!
Ngā mihi nui,
Dr John Dennison
Editor, Common Ground
