Walking with St. Paul St. Paul on Jesus’ Death and Resurrection

Nov 10, 2008

“But may I never boast except in the cross of Christ...” – Galatians 6:14

 

“…Christ died for us in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures…if Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, your faith…your faith is in vain; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 3b-4, 14, 16, 17b).

 

St. Paul was profoundly struck by the reality of the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. He was literally struck blind for three days by this reality in the person of Christ.

 

Before that day on the road to Damascus, Saul the Pharisee would have probably seen the death of Jesus on a cross as another fitting death for a criminal. He would have been in agreement with Caiaphas and the others, that Jesus was a blasphemer who was taking on divine prerogatives, saying of himself things that could only be said of Yahweh. Thus death was the only proper end.

 

However, this particular crucified person did what no other of the thousands upon thousands of crucified persons ever did. He was raised from the dead, and decided to seek him out on the road to Damascus, in the midst of Saul’s breathing murderous threats (cf. Acts 9:1).

 

From that point forward, St. Paul began to see everything in reference to the Paschal Mystery: the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ.

 

St. Paul understood that this death and resurrection, was not like the death and rising of someone like Lazarus. Lazarus would experience death again. He knows that “Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him” (Romans 6:9).

 

As we considered in last month’s column, St. Paul teaches us that Jesus the Christ is fully God and fully man. This means that God himself has undergone the experience of death for the sake of our salvation. This death is the definitive sign of God’s love for humanity.

 

Integrally linked to the fact the Jesus is God, is the very fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. This is proof. The tomb is empty. He has appeared in his glorified humanity to Cephas and five hundred others, and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He has spoken to Paul himself.

 

Bound up with this truth is that this God, who experienced death, had fully taken on human nature in the Incarnation. So when Jesus is raised from the dead, this has definitive consequences for the whole of the human race. We are all called to share in the resurrection.

 

St. Paul will boast of nothing except Christ crucified. Nevertheless, if Jesus is not raised from the dead, then he was just another dead man who said some pretty outrageous things, the preaching St. Paul does is meaningless, and our faith in Jesus is utter nonsense. And, “if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

 

St. Paul helps us understand the importance of the death and resurrection of Christ in a couple of different ways. He does so by helping us to be firmly rooted in the Old Testament, especially when it comes to relating it to Adam and to Isaiah’s prophecy of the suffering servant. We will consider the latter. (Please see last’s month’s column for more on Jesus as the new Adam).

 

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According to St. Paul, the fulfillment of the suffering servant song of Isaiah has arrived. This servant, the coming Messiah, would be “spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering…Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured…But he was pierced for our offences, crushed for our sins…the Lord has laid upon him the guilt of us all” (53:3a, 4a, 5a, 6b). He would be one who was “cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of the people” (53:8b). We understand clearly from this that there would be profound suffering for this innocent man, and even death as a result of the sins of the people.

 

However, this is not all Isaiah says about this servant. He starts out by saying, “See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted” (52:13). Further on he says, “If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendents in a long life…Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; through his suffering my servant shall justify many…Therefore I will give him his portion among the great…Because he surrendered himself to death…he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offences” (53:10b, 11-12). Here we see clearly suffering and death, leading to resurrection.

 

From these passages we also understand the results of the suffering and glorification of the servant the Father intended to send, namely justification, sins taken away and pardon for offences. This is all because he “surrendered himself to death.”

 

St. Paul knows well that “this is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again” (John 10:18). St. Paul knows that Jesus “…emptied himself…” (Philippians 2:7). 

 

Through Jesus’ death and resurrection the salvation of the world is brought about. We are saved from sin and death and saved by and for divine love. St. Paul saw this clearly as a fulfillment of what the Father always intended for his children.

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