By Jonathan Clark
Designed by Freepix
I’m a pastor to college-aged young adults. One of the best parts of my job is meeting with 20-somethings to process life and faith. These are sacred, vulnerable, and exciting chats, often in campus common areas with luke-warm coffee, or on Palmer Park trails, or over Chipotle burritos. One of my favorite parts of this is that I never know what a student is going to bring up. We might just “talk shop” about weights, or class, or sports, or we might get into weeds of faith and life. Anything is on the table: from science and faith, to sexuality, to canonicity, to relationship drama, to roommate conflict, and more.
As exciting as these topics are, it’s a constant challenge to steer the conversation toward that on which everything else hinges: the resurrection of Jesus.
The Hinge of the Christian Faith
Our world is becoming increasingly diverse, and Christians may feel the social pressure or personal expectation to defend and explain the Christian life in all areas, from race, to politics, to economics, to school choice, to ecology, to parenting, to…well you get the picture. One hack I’m learning to use when these topics come up is Paul’s words in 1 Cor 2:2, “I decided to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
Later in 1 Cor 15:3-7, Paul says he delivered to the church the most important message of the faith: Christ died for our sins, and was raised, all according to the scriptures, and then he appeared again alive to hundreds of eyewitnesses. This is the core claim of the Christian faith. And in this, all Christians have the hack which cuts through the smoke and mirrors of secular society and religious life.
If the claim of the resurrection is not true, then Christianity is either the worst lie to deceive humanity (“we are found to be misrepresenting God,” v. 15) or a pitiful delusion (“we are of all people most to be pitied,” v. 18). (C.S. Lewis lovers will detect the Lord, Liar, Lunatic argument here.) Yet if it is true, then Christianity is the only and best Good News that can redeem our world and your life. Those are the stakes. And it all hinges on the resurrection.
Event and Meaning
To help the young adults I pastor understand the profound importance of the resurrection, I explain that there are two basic components: the event and its meaning. The event is the historical, in-space-and-time fact of the resurrection. A man named Jesus living in rural Palestine in the first century was also God-in-flesh. He died and then came back to life three days later on a certain day in a certain place. Hundreds of people saw him alive again, providing such compelling evidence that no one could successfully refute or deny it. And unlike a Tolkien or Clancy novel, it has real historical grounds.
This historical event also has meaning. Some events don’t have cosmic meaning. We eat our respective dinners nightly. I put clothes on each day. These are time-and-place events, but generally with low “meaning,” or import beyond even our lives, let alone the human race or the whole cosmos. In contrast, an “event with meaning” could be the Signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. That event meant the birth of the United States.
The “meaning” of the resurrection event, according to the apostolic witness (or scripture), is “for our sins” and is twice mentioned “according to the scriptures” (v. 3). Here’s what that means: the God-man’s redemption-rescue of his own elect; the defeat the Prince of Darkness and his chief weapon, Death; the purchase for himself a people from every nation; the fulfillment all the Covenant promises of the Messiah; the accomplishment of all the law’s demands substitutionally. In short, the resurrection means the reconciliation of all things to Jesus, for the glory of the Triune God, forever. That’s a lot of meaning! And, if it is true, it demands either our assent or rejection. The aroma of Christ is to life or death (2 Cor. 2:15).
Here’s the hack, though. When students want to start with their questions, their fears, and their criticisms of the church about things like sexuality, money, politics, or whatever, I can say, “This all hinges on the first claim of the faith: Was Jesus who he claimed to be, and did he do what the Bible claims he did, namely die and rise? If so, he’s our savior and our king, and the rest of our lives is the process of following him and submitting to him in every area. But if not, none of this matters, and we can just eat, drink, and be merry (1 Cor. 15:32), because we are stuck down here ‘til the worms finally get us or the sun burns out.”
A Conversation “Hack”
I’ve found the rub for people often comes to the major cultural friction point for the Christian faith in our world today: sexuality. Often in my conversations I will hear, “I can’t be a Christian because I’m gay.” I respond with something like, “Can we sideline the sexuality question, and just consider the plausibility and meaning of the resurrection first? Once we deal with that claim, then we can circle back to the other questions.” It cools down the emotional temperature of the room, it gets to the core question of the faith, and it builds trust. I’m telling you, it’s a real hack.
Yes, the Faith once delivered should be teased into every area of human experience. We should indeed take every thought captive (2 Cor. 10:5). In the end, though, all stands or falls on the resurrection and the incredible grace of God on full display on that meaning-ful, event-ful day.
Jonathan Clark is a Presbyterian minister (PCA) and serves as the campus minister with Reformed University Fellowship in Colorado Springs, Colo. He holds an MDiv from Covenant Theological Seminary and a BA in politics, philosophy, and economics from The King's College. He is married to Caroline, a graphic designer, and together they have one daughter. His interests include Christian missions in a secular culture, Enlightenment philosophy and politics, and cycling whenever it's warm outside.