[The above is substantially the text of the program released for broadcast the weekend of April 12—14 in the radio series, "The Bible Speaks to You," heard internationally over more than 800 stations. This is one of the weekly programs produced by the Christian Science Committee on Publication, 107 Falmouth Street, Boston 15, Massachusetts.]
RADIO PROGRAM NO. 54 - The Meaning of the Resurrection
[This is the third of a special group of programs on the subject, "The Values We Cherish," in which some basic elements of the Christian religion are being discussed.]
HOST: Over the centuries three brief words shine in unsurpassed wonder and glory: "He is risen." They tell of the resurrection of the Master, Christ Jesus, and they unite Christians of all creeds and races everywhere.
But the good news of the resurrection also falls on skeptical ears. Some people doubt that it ever happened. Others say, "If it did, it was the miraculous climax of a miraculous career—and therefore doesn't have much practical value for ordinary people today."
There are earnest thinkers in all Christian denominations who ask if the real meaning of the resurrection has been lost. Many of them would agree, at least in part, with this observation of Eve Barbour in her book, "Positive Thinking Is Not Enough." She says that the tendency to focus attention on the human history of Jesus, ignoring the deep meaning of his resurrection, has "stranded the resurrected Christ in the tomb, for millions of Christians." She goes on: "Once a year He is permitted out, and we give Him the major emphasis, at Eastertime. But comes Monday morning we hasten again to Jesus of Nazareth, and the resurrected Christ is put back in the tomb until next Easter. And for another year we wonder why our religious faith leaves us so impotent." [Publishers, Vantage Press, Inc., New York. Copyright, 1955, by Eve Barbour.]
Would you care to comment on this subject?
SPEAKER: I think most Christians would agree that we can't really appreciate the career of Christ Jesus unless we understand the meaning of the resurrection. The resurrection not only is the greatest victory of the Master's career; it's at the very heart of his teachings! Christian Scientists are convinced that everything Jesus taught, everything he did, takes on new meaning through this supreme proof of God's power and love.
The saving power that Jesus demonstrated in his resurrection was the same power he demonstrated in healing the sick, redeeming the sinner, comforting the sorrowful. And that's why you can't understand the meaning of the Master's career without understanding his resurrection. When you do understand the meaning of the resurrection, you see it's not an isolated miracle in a bygone age. It has tremendous meaning for you and me today. The Apostle Paul left no doubt about that.
HOST: What makes you say that?
SPEAKER: To Paul, our Master's resurrection was the supreme proof that the Christ-power, taught by Jesus, can triumph over all mortality, over every human problem. Paul knew about the crucifixion and resurrection from those who had seen Jesus on the cross with their own eyes and who had seen him with their own eyes after he came out of the tomb. Paul had experienced in a measure the same transforming power that carried Jesus safely through his ordeal. Paul spoke from the heart when he summed up the meaning of the resurrection in these words in I Corinthians in the Bible:
"Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain" (15:12—14).
"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept" (15:20).
"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (15:22).
"Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (15:57,58).
HOST: There's certainly no doubt that the resurrection meant a great deal to Paul. But what, specifically, is the meaning of the resurrection for people like you and me today?
SPEAKER: It wouldn't be possible to do full justice to that question on one program. But speaking as a Christian Scientist, I would say there are three points about it that stand out because they're vital to our lives today: First, Jesus' resurrection was the supreme triumph of spiritual power over the supposed power of matter and mortality. Second, through his resurrection, Jesus proved that mortal man—the fleshly man—is not the essence of man's real nature. And finally, the resurrection shows that we can experience this same saving power here and now, in growing measure, and that as we do, we gain step by step the salvation from mortality which the Master brought to the world.
HOST: Those are challenging statements. Perhaps you'd explain them more in detail. Let's go back to the first one: What do you mean when you call Jesus' resurrection the triumph of spiritual power over mortality?
SPEAKER: Well, people believed then, as they do now, that man is condemned to die. They believed that no matter how high his aspirations, no matter how great his progress, man is doomed to dust. And so they accepted sin as unavoidable and suffering and death as realities over which they had no control.
Through his resurrection, Jesus showed that the glorious light and power of the Christ, the spiritual idea of God, can bring freedom from the nightmare of mortality. He had lifted people's lives above the gloom of mortality even before his crucifixion. Through the Christpower, they saw him restore sight to the blind, health to the sick, purity of mind and body to the sinner. Through his crowning victory over the cross and the tomb, Jesus established as the cornerstone of Christianity this great fact: No power, no circumstance, not even death itself, can withstand the saving power and grace of God. Through spiritual power alone he faced and overcame the supposed laws of matter. He proved for all time that immortal Life and Love are supreme over hate and death. He exposed mortality as a godless, powerless dream. He proved that nothing can resist the spiritual power of the Christ, Truth.
HOST: Would you explain your second main point: that, as you put it, the resurrection shows that mortal man is not the essence of man's real nature.
SPEAKER: The Apostle Paul put it clearly when he said: "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
Jesus came to wake people out of the mortal view of man typified by Adam, the view that man is made of dust, sinful by nature, condemned to suffer and die. Jesus showed through his resurrection that man's real nature is not mortal, is not trapped in the flesh, is not ended by death. He showed that man is the spiritual likeness of his creator, the sinless expression of infinite Spirit, or God. This is his real nature.
Jesus showed that God sustains man's life eternally. He showed that since all that comprises man has its source in God, man can't be cut off from God: can't be killed, can't be touched by mortality in spite of all material appearances to the contrary. Jesus showed that as we learn to see man's true nature as spiritual, Christlike, sustained by God, in that degree, as Paul brought out, "shall all be made alive."
HOST: Now for your final point: that we can experience the same power that brought the resurrection. Would you explain that?
SPEAKER: Well, Mary Baker Eddy defines "resurrection" in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" as, "Spiritualization of thought; a new and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence; material belief yielding to spiritual understanding" (p. 593).
Now, we share in the resurrection, that is, we find our own resurrection step by step, as we yield to the transforming power of the Christ, which spiritualizes thought. Through this spiritual awakening, we gain "a new and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence," as Mrs. Eddy expresses it. The graveclothes of fear, hate, lust, prejudice, sickness, yield to a growing spiritual understanding of God and man.
As we let the Christ-power shine within us, we find the way of salvation. This divine power outshines the gloom of mortality. We see man as God really made him— immortal, whole, free. This understanding lifts us above the deadness of materialism. Trust in God's power replaces fear. Love is victor over hate. Weakness yields to the spiritual strength which has its source in God. We find in the words of Paul that God does give us the victory "through our Lord Jesus Christ."
HOST: What you're saying, then, is that Easter isn't a one-day-a-year event, that its real meaning is for every day.
SPEAKER: That's right. I think this passage from one of Mrs. Eddy's books sums up what the resurrection means to the Christian Scientist. She says (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 191): "This glad Easter morning witnesseth a risen Saviour, a higher human sense of Life and Love, which wipes away all tears. With grave-clothes laid aside, Christ, Truth, has come forth from the tomb of the past, clad in immortality." And she continues: "Mortality's thick gloom is pierced. The stone is rolled away. Death has lost its sting, and the grave its victory. Immortal courage fills the human breast and lights the living way of Life."
