Five Reasons Why the Resurrection Was So Important to the First Christians:
The Resurrection and the Vindication of Jesus
The first reason that the resurrection was so important to the early church can be stated in this way: By raising Jesus from the dead, God vindicated Jesus’ life and ministry. To understand this, imagine how Jesus’ first followers would have responded if they did not believe that God raised him from the dead? They would have lost their faith in the one who proclaimed that the kingdom of God was making its appearance in his life and ministry. They would no longer have found his teaching convincing and enduring. Jesus’ ministry and teaching were so intimately related to his understanding and trust in God that it is difficult to comprehend why his disciples would have remained faithful to him if God had not raised him from the dead.
Death is a defining moment in every person’s life. It marks the end of life as we know it. Jesus’ own death was no different, and his death appeared to contradict all that he proclaimed. He was condemned by the religious leaders of his own people as someone who had led God’s people astray. He was executed by the Roman authorities as a political insurgent. His death by crucifixion was a scandal to his own disciples, who could not understand why he had to suffer and die if he was the Messiah. In a word, the first Christians were confronted with the scandal of the cross that their enemies would use against them for years to come: If Jesus was truly God’s anointed one, why did God allow his anointed to suffer and die in such a scandalous manner? Was Jesus, after all, a deceiver? Did he die under God’s curse (Deut 21:23)?
It was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that enabled his followers to move forward. By this powerful creative act, God vindicated Jesus as his anointed one, the Messiah, the Son of God. It was the resurrection that convinced the first Christians that God had not abandoned Jesus after all but vindicated him by raising him from the dead. The Acts of the Apostles develops this theme of vindication in a series of sermons that Peter and Paul delivered. For example, in his sermon on Pentecost, Peter says to those assembled in Jerusalem, “this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power” (Acts 2:23-24). The contrast that Peter establishes between what the people did (crucified and killed Jesus) and what God has done (raised him from the dead), highlights the importance of the resurrection for the early church. The resurrection was God’s vindication of Jesus. By raising Jesus from the dead, God vindicated Jesus. It now became clear in a way that it had not been before that Jesus was God’s anointed agent who inaugurated the kingdom. It now became clear that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, the one whom God appointed as Savior and Lord of all.
Father Matera (These columns are taken from a book I am writing on The Resurrection of the Dead)