EASTER -2014: ACTS 10:34a, 37-43; COL 3:1-4; JOHN 20: 1-9

A few years ago, Random House published a book called Made to Stick. It is an interesting analysis of six characteristics that make ideas sticky. It was written to help communicators - from teachers to professional marketers - communicate better. One of these six characteristics is credibility. Credibility is the quality of an idea that makes people believe in it, it makes them buy into it. The authors give examples of how to make ideas credible.  They tell about ad campaigns that boosted sales by associating products with celebrities. They also mention something that marketers call The Sinatra Test. The "Sinatra Test" is precisely that - a single example or test case that proves credibility without any room for doubt. Christ's resurrection is what makes Christianity pass The Sinatra Test. The resurrection is the stamp that validates everything Jesus did and said.

Jesus Christ claimed to have the secret to eternal life, to a lastingly meaningful life, to the kind of happiness that we all yearn for with all our being. Others have made similar claims: Buddha, Confucius, Mohammad, Zoroaster, even modern gurus like Deepak Chopra .  And yet, have any of them passed the Sinatra Test? Even one?  Only Christ has won the irreversible victory and shown undeniable credibility, by rising from the dead, attesting what he said was true. The Resurrection makes Christianity absolutely unique.

 If Christ didn't rise from the dead, he has no more authority over our lives than Socrates or Confucius or Buddha or Mohammad. But he did rise from the dead. His victory over evil and falsehood and injustice and suffering is total and irreversible. Has anybody other than Jesus, Mary or Christian saints appeared to others even to people of their own religion? There are hundreds of instances where non-Christians have witnessed that they had the apparitions of Jesus or Mary and been the cause of their conversion to Christianity. But not a single case has been reported from any other religion similar to these ones.

St. Paul writes:  “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain; and your faith is in vain…  And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins…  

If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, then the Church is a fraud, and faith is a sham. But if He really did rise from the dead, His message is true! The seventeenth-century philosopher, John Locke, wrote, "Our Savior’s Resurrection is truly of great importance in Christianity, so great that His being or not being the Messiah stands or falls with it." 

The facts that support Jesus’ resurrection are: (1) Jesus himself testified to His Resurrection from the dead (Mark 8:31; Matthew 17:22).
(2) The tomb was empty on Easter Sunday (Luke 24:3). Although the guards claimed (Matthew 28:13) that the disciples of Jesus had stolen the body, every sensible Jew knew that it was impossible for the terrified disciples of Jesus to steal the body of Jesus from a tomb guarded by an armed, 16-member Temple Guard detachment. If they stole the body why did they leave the burial clothes behind? The disciples wouldn’t dare to steal the body risking to face the same fate Jesus faced. The Jews and the Romans could not disprove Jesus’ Resurrection by presenting the dead body of Jesus. 

(3) The Apostles and early Christians would not have faced martyrdom if they were not absolutely sure of Jesus’ Resurrection. They wouldn’t dare to die for Jesus, if the resurrection was a lie made up by them.
(4)  The Apostle Paul’s conversion from a persecutor of Christians and his zealous preaching of Jesus support the truth of Jesus’ Resurrection (Galatians 1:11-17, Acts 9:1)

Only the reality of the Resurrection can explain the reality of the history of the Church:

A few weak, non-influential, and uneducated fishermen from Galilee, frightened out of their wits when Jesus was arrested and executed, suddenly become world travelers, phenomenally successful preachers, and valiant martyrs. And the Church they spread continues to spread after they die, holding fast to the exact same doctrine they preached, century after century, in nation after nation. Only the abiding presence of the Lord can explain this, and only the resurrection explains the abiding presence of the Lord. This is what makes us, as Christians, different. Christ's resurrection makes Christianity the only truly Supernatural religion.

Jesus did not just say He would spiritually rise from the dead. That was easy to tell. Even if his body remained in the tomb, his disciples could claim he is spiritually risen. No; Jesus predicted physical resurrection, not a spiritual resurrection. He was objectively alive. Proving to the disciples by eating food before them and allowing Thomas to touch his wounds and pierced heart. Spiritual things you can not empirically prove. But Jesus proved spiritual things with empirical evidences. When Jesus forgave a paralytic of his sins, the Pharisees contested that he had no power to do that. But then Jesus proved that what he told was true by physically healing him as well. So is his own resurrection too. He told he is the resurrection and life and he proved that by his own resurrection.

As Jesus could walk through stone walls, the removal of the stone from the face of the tomb was not a condition for his resurrection, but a sign of the resurrection. Bede the Venerable wrote, “The angel rolled back the stone not to throw open a way for our Lord to come forth, but to provide evidence to people that he had already come forth.” 

Easter, the feast of the Resurrection, gives us the joyful message that we are a “Resurrection people.”  This means that we are not supposed to lie buried in the tomb of our sins, evil habits and dangerous addictions.  It gives us the Good News that no tomb can hold us down anymore - not the tomb of despair, discouragement or doubt, nor that of death. Instead, we are expected to live a joyful and peaceful life, constantly experiencing the real presence of the Risen Lord in all the events of our lives.
Nothing can destroy us – not pain, sin, rejection nor death – because Christ has conquered all these, and we too can conquer them if we put our faith in Him. But before we can rise, we have to die, and no resurrection without death. Without dying to self no eternal life can be experienced.

Today’s responsorial psalm was:“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad” . We express our gladness by jubilantly exclaiming “Alleluiah”. The Hebrew word “Alleluiah” means praise the Lord. Christian tradition has not translated it, but uses it as it is in Hebrew. During the lent we have been holding this off from utter it. It is like a sound of cheering like the roar of a crowd at a football match when a goal is scored. Let’s joyfully and lavishly use this now, realizing that in his resurrection we have been justified. Alleluiah.