Why the Resurrection Was So Important to the First Christians: Reason #4
May2,2013
by Father Matera
Five Reasons Why the Resurrection Was So Important to the First Christians:
4. The Resurrection and the Fulfillment of Israel’s Hope
A fourth reason why the resurrection was so important to the early church can be stated in this way: In light of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the first Christians began to understand that the resurrection of the dead, which had begun in the Messiah, was the fulfillment of Israel’s hope. For example, toward the end of the Acts of the Apostles, Paul defends himself before the Jewish king, Agrippa. Having been accused of betraying the faith of his ancestors by preaching that God raised Jesus from the dead, Paul recounts his former zeal for his ancestral faith and says, “And now I stand here on trial on account of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors, a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night. It is for this hope, your Excellency, that I am accused by Jews! Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead” (Acts 26:6-8)? As the italicized words indicate, Paul draws a connection between the promise God made to Israel and Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
On first reading, Paul’s defense is rather puzzling since Israel’s scriptures do not say a great deal about the resurrection from the dead. Moreover, the promise or promises that God made to Israel tend to deal with the promise of the land, the promise of progeny, the promise that Israel will be a great nation, the promise of deliverance from exile, the promise of a savior king, an anointed figure, the Messiah. There is little, if any promise of resurrection from the dead. But this is not how Paul interprets Israel’s history.
In light of his call and conversion, whereby Paul encountered the risen Lord, the Apostle understands that all of the promises that God made to Israel have found their fulfillment in the resurrection of the Messiah, which prefigures the resurrection of all who believe in him. And so Paul and the early church now view the promise that God made to Israel as pointing to a single promise: the resurrection from the dead. The promises God made to Abraham and his posterity find their deepest fulfillment in the risen Lord who makes all who believe in him children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, no matter their ethnic origin. The promise God made to David finds its fulfillment in the risen Messiah who now reigns eternally over the house of Jacob. God’s promises to deliver Israel from bondage in Egypt and from exile in Babylon receive their full meaning in the resurrection of Christ, which delivers humanity from the more serious bondage of Sin and Death in which humanity finds itself.
The resurrection of the Christ, then, was important to the first Christians because they understood that in the risen Christ God brought the promises made to Israel to their fulfillment. Apart from the resurrection, no matter how noble Jesus’ death, God’s promises would not have been brought to their completion.
Father Matera (This series of columns is taken from a book I am writing on The Resurrection of the Dead)