Resurrection - The Fulfillment

If Jesus' life had ended on the cross, his story might have been a high point in creation. Here was someone who had done everything right, had followed God's plan for the world in his words and actions, had attempted to contribute to the development of what God had begun in the human creature, had apparently demonstrated how rich and how spiritually profound a human life could be. It was an exemplary life.

But Jesus' life ending on the cross would also have been one of the saddest stories in the history of creation. He who carried out God's will as none had done before would have died leaving only a memory behind, a memory of rejection and failure, done to death by the fear and narrowness of his fellow human creatures. If Jesus' life had ended on the cross it would have been one more monument to the triumph of human irresponsibility, to the triumph of human blindness, to the triumph of sin. Everything would be the same as it was before, with Jesus as the great exception proving the rule of futility in human endeavor.

But Jesus' life did not end on the cross. Soon after he had died he reappeared. He came back to his friends and followers. They recognized him as being the same Jesus they had known before, even though he was somehow different. His greeting to them was a greeting of peace. He calmed their fears at seeing him by assuring them that he was not a ghost. On many different occasions he associated himself with them again when they were gathered to recall his memory, when they sat together at meals, even when they worked at their fishing business.

The significance of the Resurrection of Jesus lies in what God says in and through it. In bringing Jesus gloriously back from death God is saying that a life like the life of Jesus is too good to end, too important to be overcome by human sinfulness, too significant to be relegated to the realm of memory, too precious to be the one-time exception in the story of creation.

By raising the humanity of Jesus from the dead, God is giving a divine sign of approval of the quality and meaning of Jesus' life. God is saying, in effect, "The life of this man is what human existence is all about—love and friendship and compassion and faithfulness and self-sacrifice, total dedication to the divine plan for creation, total giving of the human self to the work of the Creator even if the short-term result is rejection and death. This is what I want human existence to be and I want it to be so gloriously and forever." The Resurrection is God's "Bravo!" for Jesus' part in the story of creation.

Daniel E. Pilarczyk is Archbishop of Cincinnati and past president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. His other books include Thinking Catholic, Practicing Catholic, Bringing Forth Justice: Basics for Just Christians, and Twelve Tough Issues: What the Church Teaches — and Why, all by St. Anthony Messenger Press.