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Perhaps like me, when reading your Bible, you find it difficult to comprehend the events recorded. I do not struggle to believe the accounts of the Old and New Testaments, even if they are far beyond the scope of my experience or scientific explanation. However, I do find it hard to understand how even the most historical and miraculous events, such as the resurrection of Christ, translate into my world. Those events seem so far removed from my current experiences that I struggle to relate to the awesome displays of God’s power and to even respond to them with a personal and transformed faith. However, if Christ’s resurrection is true (and I know that it is), then His power, mercy, and hope are as available to me as to even the very disciples who first discovered the empty tomb.
The following story helps to explain how the resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than motivational fodder for a sermon or even just a powerful event in the history of the world.
Chuck Colson [former special counsel to President Nixon, renowned author, and founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries], exhausted from an over-booked schedule, arrived in rain and fog at a prison in remote Montana on the day before Easter, 1988. He was to speak at two services that morning, and the first went badly. Dog-tired and dry, his preaching lacked enthusiasm, and he sensed that he wasn’t reaching the men at all. Between services, he went to the chaplain’s office, sank to his knees beside the desk, and earnestly asked the Lord to take away his frustration, exhaustion, and despair. But as he arose from his knees, he felt no different and was too tired to greet the inmates as they began assembling. Waiting as long as possible to enter the service, he was surprised to find the room packed. As he took his seat, one of the inmates rose to give a testimony.
“Ten years ago when Chuck Colson came to this prison,” the man said, “I was in my cell. I had no intention of coming to the chapel to hear him. I knew he was a phony, and I wanted nothing to do with Christianity. But everyone in the prison seemed to be talking about the visit. The governor was coming with Colson, as well as a lot of television and newspaper reporters. If Colson can get the governor to come to prison, I thought, I might as well see what he is all about.”
Then the man turned to Colson and said, “I listened to you preach, and I was impressed, but I wasn’t buying it. When the meeting ended, I headed for the door. Somehow you were there before me, and you cut me off at the pass. You looked right at me and asked, ‘Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior?’ I looked back at you and said, ‘No.’
“I’ll never forget—” the man continued. “You looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘Well, why are you here, then? You’d better get with it.’
“That exchange haunted me. It was the beginning of my spiritual journey. Soon after I gave my life to Jesus, and everything has been different ever since.”
The inmate, having given his own heart to Christ, had begun to evangelize inside the prison. One after another, prisoners had come to Christ.
“You see all these men, Chuck? This is the body of Christ that has grown up as a result of that meeting ten years ago. The church is alive inside this prison.”
Amid thunderous applause, the inmate proceeded to give Chuck a collection taken in the prison for Prison Fellowship’s ministry.
“I felt their vitality flood into me,” Chuck later recalled. “I had come to them weary and worn out, and the church inside the prison—planted without my knowledge ten years earlier—replenished me with its love and faithfulness. Just at the point of need, the power of the resurrected Christ flowed from one part of His body into another.
“That Easter I had proof once again, in His living presence among a band of Christian inmates, that Jesus Christ is risen again.”
The resurrection of Christ has not only historical significance for the whole world, but unbelievable relevant significance for your world today. Since Christ is risen, our prayers are heard, our needs are met, and our work is important and effective. The Apostle Paul would end his most extensive treatment of the resurrection in all of his writings with this statement. “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
As was true then, even so now—Amen.
Jason