27.03 | All or Nothing
1 Corinthians 15:1-34
‘For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.’
1 Corinthians 15:16-19
In 2016, Netflix ran the first in what became a series of documentaries, following a major sports team through an entire season. They began with the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL, and since have followed various other iconic teams, such as Manchester City or Arsenal in the Premier League, the Brazilian national football team, or the New Zealand All Blacks.
The title of the series is All or Nothing.
The title looks to capture the radical devotion of the sports professional. It describes the relentless commitment of players, staff, and manager towards success. These people live, breathe, eat and drink their sport. No half measures. It’s all or nothing.
One of the characteristics of spirituality of our age is what is often called consumer, or pick n’ mix, spirituality. It is the tendency to select elements from different religious structures as fits around our individual worldview and values. The classic spirituality of our day is less atheism, but a little bit of Buddhism mixed with some New Age, with some latent Christian ethics mixed in. Add a dash of manifesting your inner dreams, with the occasional nod to Mother Earth or the angels who watch down on us, and you’re pretty much there. This mixture is adaptable, exchanging our spirituality emphases as life changes and we get older. It’s a spirituality that is partially in everywhere and all in nowhere.
Paul wants to challenge something similar in the Corinthians today.
Because the Corinthians, like us, were looking to selectively accept Christianity.
And in today’s reading, we see that some of them were trying to get rid of the most essential idea of all.
That Jesus’ resurrection is the definitive event in history.
Not metaphorically.
But literally. Bodily.
That Jesus’ dead body began breathing, pumping warm blood through revitalised veins. And that this same embodied Jesus now, in this exact moment of your reading, awaits an imminent return to this world, where all things, including you, will be renewed into the glory for which we were always intended.
This is the core and centre of Christianity. Without it, nothing else makes sense. Suffering would be senseless. The cost of following Jesus would be futile. The Cross would be stripped of its meaning, for if Jesus was not raised, then neither were sin and death defeated and we have no Good News to declare. Death would still finish every story.
In Paul’s words, ‘if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile’.
If the resurrection of Jesus didn’t happen, we can all pack up and go home.
Tim Keller put it this way:1
“Sometimes people approach me and say, “I really struggle with this aspect of Christian teaching. I like this part of Christian belief, but I don’t think I can accept that part.’ I usually respond: ‘If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.’ That is how the first hearers felt who heard reports of the resurrection. They knew that if it was true it meant we can’t live our lives any way we want. It also meant we don’t have to be afraid of anything, not Roman swords, not cancer, nothing. If Jesus rose from the dead, it changes everything.”
It changes everything.
Your day. My day. And how we look at every situation.
Reflect:
Have a look at your day, the good bits and the bad bits, your aspirations and your fears.
Recall that Jesus is alive right now, and that His return will lead to your own bodily resurrection in a creation that will be made entirely beautiful, new and good.
Soak in this, asking the Spirit to help you.
Now look at your day again. How will you inhabit it differently?
Pray:
Father in heaven,
Sometimes resurrection seems to me a bit of a faraway theme.
I know the words,
And yet, in the challenges and tangles of life,
I lose track of it somehow.
The obstacles I can see seem greater to me than the coming life.
And so, Holy Spirit,
I ask you to work faith into my soul:
The ability to see the unseen,
And hope in all circumstances,
And to walk with resilient joy in the face of every obstacle.
Help me to walk in the whole Story of God,
This day, and all my days.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Deuteronomy 23:1-25:10 | Psalm 39
Tim Keller: The Reason for God, p.202. Tim Keller himself died in 2023, after an extended battle with pancreatic cancer. Two days before he died, he prayed: ‘I'm thankful for all the people who’ve prayed for me over the years. I'm thankful for my family, that loves me. I’m thankful for the time God has given me, but I’m ready to see Jesus. I can’t wait to see Jesus. Send me home.”