1 Corinthians 15:12-20 (NRSV)
Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 on biblegateway.com
Verse 12Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? Verse 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; Verse 14and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. Verse 15We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ-whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. Verse 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. Verse 17If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Verse 18Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. Verse 19If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Verse 20But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
Devotion
There are Norwegian bachelor farmers such as those caricatured by author and humorist Garrison Keillor. I was a rookie pastor when I was asked to visit a nonagenarian Norwegian bachelor farmer who told me, "I don't believe in resurrection. It just isn't practical." Here was a man who had cared for crops and livestock through the Great Depression. He had lived the miracle of spring birth and germination through to the natural end of butchering and harvest. Life and death are that farmer's practical reality. Paul told such practical people in Corinth that without resurrection, we Christian people are really pitiful.
I didn't insist that the farmer needed to accept the resurrection. I invited him to walk with Jesus. He knew how to do that. He knew scripture as well as I did, maybe better. We walked together that afternoon, I with a vision of the resurrection; he with the vision of Jesus.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, shine your resurrection into this world through your mission, through us, your followers. Help us to walk boldly today in the vision of your resurrection. Amen.