The Apostle Paul famously said that if Jesus did not raise from the dead, our “faith is futile.” (I Corinthians 15:17)
Interesting, isn’t it, that Paul did not say that if Jesus had never been born or if Jesus had never lived a perfect life or if Jesus had never gone to the cross (though perhaps he could have said any of these) — our faith is absolutely and utterly pointless. Rather, for Paul, everything hinged on the shattering moment when Mary Magdalene ran to the tomb and amid her tears and sorrow found a tomb empty as empty can be.
For those of us who actually believe this preposterous, unlikely story, we hear the apostle and we might wonder why exactly everything (everything) hangs on this reality. For those of us who dismiss this preposterous, unlikely story, we may hear the apostle and think, “well, sounds about right, all of it is rubbish.”
Wherever we might be, how about reading along and thinking along with us this Easter season. For the first five Mondays of Easter, we will have a different guide reflect on that weeks chapter from Bishop N.T. Wright’s The Challenge of Easter