Preaching as Witnesses on Easter
(Scripture from New International Version)
Every Easter Sunday, Christians confess, with a traditional creed, a litany, or contemporary praise, that Christ is risen today. Looking particularly at the tense, we can find that, through anamnesis, active memory, Christ is risen “today.” However, when I shared this with my congregation on one Easter Sunday, I wondered: How many of us truly witness and believe in the resurrection? “Christ is risen today” felt more like a yearly mantra than the cry of genuine love and joy that was once its expression. Doesn’t it sound not like a serious confession but an unusual story from the past?
While meditating on John 11, a similar question was ringing in my ears. John 11: 25-26 reads, “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” It is the most basic of Christian lessons– the tool of the missionary and the call of the minister. However, the general consensus tends to view it as a command rather than a question for self-reflection. I feel that this inquiry is vital for preachers who preparing sermons on resurrection. It’s not an easy question, by any means. Mary and Martha heard of and knew what the resurrection was, but it seemed they did not have a conviction of it. They knew the power of God but did not expect a miraculous resurrection of the dead! Solely cerebral acknowledgement, in this case, is not what Jesus asked for. I believe that Jesus expected more. What would be the expectations of Jesus for today’s preachers?
Resurrection was Witnessed
Let us visit the actual spot of the resurrection. We rely heavily on the witnesses in the Bible. Frederick Buechner, in his The Magnificent Defeat notes:
“There really is no story about the Resurrection in the New Testament. Except in the most fragmentary way, it is not described at all. There is no poetry about it. Instead, it is simply proclaimed as a fact. Christ is risen! In fact, the very existence of the New Testament itself proclaims it. Unless something very real indeed took place on that strange, confused morning, there would be no New Testament, no Church, no Christianity.” ( http://www.wikipreacher.org/home/quotations-and-illustrations/-r/resurrection/no-resurrection-story-in-the-new-testament)
Resurrection was confessed as well as witnessed. It is true that all the witnesses proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus not only with words but also with deeds. I believe that the fundamental changes within the witnesses serve as the most reliable evidence of resurrection. When Jesus was arrested, his disciples fell into utter despair and feared for their lives. Famously, Peter was afraid of revealing his faith. Others were surrounded by darkness. After the resurrection of Jesus, Peter’s fear of death was entirely dispelled by his miraculous new life. Other witnesses were filled with hope. They did not remain in silence, but boldly proclaimed the beauty of eternity and a glimpse of heavenly life, as well as existence of the new life after death.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a leading spokesman for the Confessing Church, the center of Protestant resistance to the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s, left us a well-known confession right before his death. “This is the end–but for me, the beginning–of life.” Faith in resurrection made him overcome his fear of death and provided an anticipation of the coming of a different, new world! Through the process of prolepsis, a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, Bonhoeffer demonstrated how to live a heavenly life on earth. He truly possessed the peace that the world cannot give (John 14:27).
Resurrection is about a totally different worldview, and thus it implies an equally unique lifestyle. First and foremost, it requires perceptive faith, in other words the ability to see beyond the immediately visible world to another world beyond death. Belief in resurrection contains a conviction that we have a bigger, wider, deeper, and totally different life beyond our earthly comprehension.
Preachers are Witnesses: Seeking Eternity, Proclaiming Hope
Then how are we to prove that we are witnesses of resurrection? How do we preach this challenging worldview? As the pastor of a local church, the congregation demanded not efficiency nor skill but sincere spirituality. Faith and revelation had to come in packages of “gut feelings,” and more than anything else sermons needed to be genuine. It was a holy burden that was extraordinarily difficult to carry out, and I often found myself disappointed with my results. I strongly agree with Thomas Long’s well-known idea, “Preachers are witnesses.” He offers an image of the preacher as the one who “bears witness.” Preachers testify encounters between God and us and God’s grace through their sincere witnessing process. I believe that resurrection requires witnessing through our preaching life.
Rev. Spurgeon shares a story at the last part of his sermon, “Christ’s Resurrection and Our Newness of Life.”
“Let me finish by a picture, which will show you what I mean by whole-heartedness. I have seen boys bathing in a river in the morning. One of them has just dipped his toes in the water, and he cries out, as he shivers, “Oh, it’s so cold!” Another has gone in up to his ankles, and he also declares that it is fearfully chilly. But see! another runs to the bank, and takes a header. He rises all in a glow. All his blood is circulating, and he cries “Delicious! What a beautiful morning! I am all in a glow. The water is splendid!” That is the boy for enjoying a bath! You Christian people who are paddling about in the shallows of religion, and just dipping your toes into it–you stand shivering in the cold air of the world which you are afraid to leave. Oh, that you would plunge into the river of life! How it would brace you! What tone it would give you! In for it, young man! In for it! Be a Christian, out and out. Serve the Lord with your whole being. Give yourself wholly to him who bought you with his blood. Plunge into the sacred flood by grace, and you will exclaim–Oh, this is life! Oh, this is joy, My God, to find thee so! Thy face to see, thy voice to hear, And all thy love to know. May we thus walk in newness of life! Amen.” (www.spurgeon.org/sermons/2197.htm)
Preachers are those who plunge headfirst into the water. They are the ones seeing what they have to see, experiencing in advance, a little quicker and more sensitive than their congregations. Think of Moses and the people of Israel in the Sinai desert. The followers complained everyday. They couldn’t see the pillars of cloud and fire. Isaiah provides an explanation as to why it is so easy to be narrow-minded and not fully aware of the final goals. “You have seen many things, but you pay no attention; your ears are open, but you do not listen ” (Isaiah 42:20). “They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand” (Isaiah 44:18) .
It is impossible to find eternity with closed eyes and ears, and hardened hearts. Easter provokes preachers to open our eyes, ears, and hearts to find the beauty of resurrected life. Easter Sunday is a great opportunity to check who we are and what we see. It is the right time to ask ourselves a fundamental Baptismal catechism. “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:5). Easter is a wake-up call for preachers to examine their “unity” status with Christ.
The witnesses of resurrection knew that Christian faith is achieved by participation in the life and death of Jesus Christ. It cannot be mathematically or experimentally determined. It requires not a scientific analysis but the preachers’ conviction and proclamation with the evidence of cross. It is alive and sensed in our words and actions. Resurrection is not realized by succumbing to our selfish hearts, but by dying on the cross. When we realize this mystery of faith, when we fully immerse in the river of grace and fully taste the joy of faith, then resurrection is not difficult to articulate.
Yes, it is too challenging to embrace a different lifestyle requiring crucifixion. Sokhon Ham (1901-1989), Korean Quaker and social activist, describes Christians who hesitate to fully accept the power of the Word: “The fire of life is too hot to embrace, so we end up handling only…lukewarm ashes!” (www2.gol.com/users/quakers/Ham_title.htm) and (Sungsoo Kim, An Examination of Life and Legacy of a Korean Quaker Ham Sok Hon: Voice of the People and Pioneer of Religious Pluralism in Korea). Accepting heavenly life is a dangerous business. Bearing the cross is always tough and the heavenly way of thinking is not an easy road to take. Preaching resurrection is not an easy task. Thomas Merton’s confession rings the bell. "What am I? I am myself a word spoken by God!”
Preachers are those who witness the miracle of sacrifice. Many know the famous plate by Georges Rouault, “The Righteous, Like Sandalwood, Perfume the Axe That Falls on Them” (www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ACL%3AI%3A5&page_number=811&template_id=1&sort_order=10)
What an image of the sacrifice of Jesus! Could we, preachers, be the fragrance of resurrection in this troubled world?
Preachers, witnesses of resurrection, have strong hope in incredible changes in our lives even in this “impossibility.” We are somehow living with impossible relationships, impossible people, in an impossible world. War is never ending and tears are found everywhere. In the grace of God, however, this impossibility becomes possibility. The unseen becomes clear. Death changes into new life. Preachers dream of “Impossible possibility” (Reinhold Niebuhr) and boldly proclaim it!
Preaching as Witnessing
Now, let me go back to Jesus’ question in John 11. To answer properly, I believe that preachers ought to witness, testify, and prove through preaching life. Preachers should acknowledge that resurrection never happens in the midst of the fear of giving up selfish desires, of leaving our comfort zones, or of change. We are already aware of that some of us, including preachers, are so comfortable in our privileged world that it makes it almost impossible for us to hear the cries of the people who are chained to a life of abuses and despair.
Preachers proclaim that the resurrection is happening here and now with the senses immersed in eternity and hope in the life of the present and future. Rewards of witnessing are beyond our earthly imagination. We all know Paul’s confession that he proudly regarded all the things that he "lost" or “threw away” as working for the sake of Christ (Philippians 3:7-8). He definitely knew the ultimate value of walking with Christ. Do we believe in resurrection? Remember Paul’s statement? “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19). Are we witnessing resurrection with our current earthly worldview and lifestyle? Or are we walking on a narrow path with our own crosses? Are we repeating words that do not resound with faithfulness and holiness, words that are pleasant to the ears but unfulfilling to the depths of the heart? I agree with the popular saying, “We are thirsty in the midst of a flood, because there is no water to drink.” Are we really delivering the living water? Blessed are those who preach for witnessing the resurrection, and those who have done so themselves.
