Is the resurrection just a nice story? In other words, did the bodily resurrection of Jesus really take place in space-time history or is it just an inspiring tale? In the twentieth century, the belief became popular that Jesus rose spiritually but not bodily from the grave, making of the Gospels a nice story, a myth. There is a book by two New Testament scholars, N. T. Wright and Marcus Borg, entitled: “The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions”. In the section on the resurrection, Marcus Borg argued for the spiritual resurrection of Jesus. He wrote, “Indeed, this seems to me to be the central meaning of Easter. Beginning with Easter, the early movement continued to experience Jesus as a living reality after his death, but in a radically new way. After Easter, his followers experienced him as a spiritual reality, no longer as a person of flesh and blood, limited in time and space, as Jesus of Nazareth had been.” The key question here is: Does the New Testament present the resurre...
I believe that part of the message of Holy Week is, as Corrie ten Boom put it, “There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still.” Jesus identifies with all our struggles because he has been there before us and triumphed through them and over them. I believe we can discover Jesus in our struggles right now, whatever they may be, and he can help us through them. “But what does this have to do with Palm Sunday?” you may ask. Wasn’t Palm Sunday a day of triumph for Jesus? Yes, to all outward appearances Jesus made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Perhaps multitudes were singing his praises. But as Luke records for us, Jesus wept amidst the shouting. He wept because he knew judgment was coming on the city. He wept because his people did not recognize the time of God’s coming to them. (See Luke 19:41-44.) So, Jesus identifies with our struggles… in relationships, with betrayal, when facing death, and even in success. What struggles are there in success? To discover the answer let’s rea...