"The Last Enemy."

1 Corinthians 15:19-26

April 17, 2022 + The Resurrection of the Lord

I.

The good news of Jesus Christ begins with the story we have just walked through over the last few days, culminating in the joyous celebration today.  He willingly dies at the hands of the Romans, giving his life for the life of the world; and he is resurrected from the dead on the third day, thus neutralizing Rome’s brutality and challenging Rome’s rule.  He now guides his gathered disciples by his Spirit in their new life in God’s Kingdom.  

Paul calls the resurrected Christ the “first fruits of those who have died.”  This means that his resurrection is not just something that happens to him alone, it is also something that happens to all of us.  Christ reveals what is by God’s grace the truth of the human nature we share with him: eternal life with and in God.   

Everyone subject to death, which is to say everyone, will be embraced by God’s life.  “For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.”  This destiny has been revealed to us in Jesus; now we await and live into its fulfillment.  Christ shows us our future: all will be made alive.   

The figure of Adam represents our bondage to the power of death, which is the pattern and template for our whole existence.  It is all we know.  It is our ego-centric identity, which is caught in the dark illusion of separation, and therefore mired in fear, anger, shame, and hatred, and gets expressed in the blind and violent selfishness we call sin: this is what Paul calls our old self, or our self of “flesh.”  It is the only self we are even aware of until our true essence is revealed to us in Jesus Christ.  

From Jesus Christ we inherit our liberation from the power of death, a power which he defeats on the cross by absorbing and withstanding unspeakable human injustice and violence, and emerging with a new kind of life.  Christ reveals to us our true essential nature, as human beings made in God’s Image for participation in God’s life, a life which gets expressed in acts of compassion, humility, generosity, forgiveness, love, and joy.

So we receive the good news that the resurrection of Jesus Christ reveals to each and all of us our true nature.  Christ shows us a reality that we may experience when we trust in him by living as he shows us.  

In other words, the world-as-we-know-it doesn’t have to be this way.  We do not have to exist under the power of death.  We do not have to muddle through by violence and lies.  We do not have to tolerate injustice, inequality, and exploitation.  We do not have to put up with people stoking our fear, inciting our anger, setting us off against each other as enemies and competitors.

By his resurrection Christ shows us that we may be in touch with our true nature, which is to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God in peace and joy; to glorify God and to enjoy God forever.  

II.

But we do live in a between-time after Christ’s resurrection yet before the final fulfillment of this revelation.  What is going on in this time, Paul says, is that Christ is busy destroying “every ruler and every authority and power.”  He is putting "all his enemies under his feet.”

This is how the apostle Paul sees the life and work of the church, the gathered community of those who trust in Jesus Christ and seek to live according to his commandments.  It is our job to be witnesses, in his name, of this, well, destruction so that the truth of his resurrection, his victory over death, may emerge among and within us.

Because, as we know, the world remains in the grip of evil.  Bad things continue to happen.  Death continues to rule.  Bad leaders are propped up to make bad decisions, for which we will all suffer the consequences.  

But the early church understands how the grip of evil is shaken and weakened by the resurrection of Jesus.  Because if Rome’s worst instrument of terror — crucifixion — is not effective in snuffing resistance to its regime, then the whole imperial edifice could collapse.  It means that the new king, Jesus, is indeed Lord, and the Emperor is not.  If Christ is the truth, then the Emperor’s power isn’t ultimately real, and he only exerts what power we give him.

The fact that we nevertheless let him have such power means that the place where the resurrection must take hold first must be in our own hearts.  For the tyranny of rulers, authorities, and powers always begins within us.  We give them power because of our fear, our anger, our desire, our ignorance.  This is where the battle is lost or won: in the human heart.    

When we realize the truth and power of the resurrection within us, and come to trust in the good news of God’s love revealed in Jesus — that is, when we can stop trusting in what our selfish, lonely, fearful ego is telling us — that is when we start to see every ruler and every authority and power destroyed in the sense that they no longer have a voice or influence over us.  That is when Christ becomes enthroned within us, and the various pretenders and imposters get thrown out of our hearts like Jesus casts the merchants from the Temple.

That is when the world itself starts to change.  When people begin to trust and follow Jesus Christ, living his life of compassion, gentleness, humility, generosity, forgiveness, and love, not reacting in selfishness and fear all the time, then our relationships evolve, and our social and political and economic life gets transformed.  

People who trust in the resurrection cannot be tempted into engaging in lies and violence.  We will not be dominated by greed or envy or the other self-centered sins.  We will not hate or fear others; for we realize that in Christ there are no “others.”  For we are all one in him, sharing in his humanity and in his resurrection.

III.

Paul refers to death as “the last enemy,” probably because death is the the root of the fear that forces us into the selfish violence of sin. 

But in the resurrection of Jesus Christ God finally reveals the “perfect love which casts out all fear.”  “Because he lives all fear is gone,” is the way one gospel song puts it.  When the risen Christ is enthroned in our hearts, when we live by the power of his resurrection, it means that all fear has been cast out of us, overwhelmed and washed away by the awesome ocean of God’s love.  

The good news we see and know in the resurrection is at heart the truth that death has been defeated.  All are made alive in Christ.  Jesus says that all are alive to God.

More than anything else, the church is this place where we come together to celebrate and remind ourselves of God’s life and love.  At this Table we partake of the One who gives us his life, thus inoculating us against death.  In baptism we realize that we have died with Christ and are raised to new life with and in him.  The church is the crucible in which we find release from the powers that would enslave us, and so begin to experience the resurrection.  

Thus the church is this place of acceptance and welcome, forgiveness and peace, generosity and healing, love and joy.  It is where people change, learning to see how Christ destroys and sets us free from all within us that would kill or harm us, “every ruler and every authority and power.”  He liberates us from our fear, dissolves our anger, wipes out our shame and hatred, and restores us to new life together, so that we will be ready to receive the fulfillment of resurrection with him “at his coming.”

For the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a revelation of our own future.  It is like an acorn realizing that its true and final form is as an oak tree.  Or like a caterpillar becoming conscious of its destiny as a butterfly.  Resurrection life is encoded and embedded within our spiritual DNA as beings made in the Image of God.

Yes, we can blow it.  We can imagine that our hope is only about getting ahead or receiving benefits in this existence.  Like becoming really fat acorns or caterpillars.  But Paul says this would be a pitiable excuse for life because we would be missing the glory and wonder of who we really are, and who God makes us to be.  We would be missing our true destiny as participants in the divine nature and agents of God’s explosive, expansive, inclusive love.

In the resurrection God reveals our true life, our true future, our ultimate meaning and purpose to us: a life beyond the power of death.  A life we can begin to experience even now as our chains are being broken.  A life filled with wholeness and joy.  And the wonder is we don’t have to do anything, except let go of our fear, and let God fill us with love.

+++++++