Nothing Like It in the World

Nick Mauer, Coordinator of Outreach​

In 2008, a group of us traveled to Myanmar. While there, we visited the mammoth Shwedagon Pagoda, the holiest Buddhist site in the nation. We stood dwarfed by the 325-ft stupa with its literal tons of gold and diamonds (worth an estimated at $3 billion USD[1]). I looked like an ant next to it. Shwedagon’s size, its antiquity, and the massive crowd constantly churning around its base impress any observant spectator. In many ways, it’s the crown jewel of Buddhist shrines.

There’s nothing like it in the world.

We also traveled to Cambodia on that trip and toured the Angkor Wat complex. Cambodian emperor Suryavarman II built Angkor for the worship of the Hindu god Vishnu and today the temple remains the world’s largest religious monument.[2] A causeway three football fields in length, lined with peddlers, beggars, and tourists, leads to the central court across a massive moat.[3] Other temples stand nearby: temples like Bayon, known for its giant carved faces,[4] or the iconic Ta Prohm, its buildings all overgrown with tree roots. Few religious sites in existence can rival Angkor Wat.

There’s nothing like it in the world.

Two years after that trip, I visited the Dome of the Rock. Dominating Jerusalem’s skyline, it ranks as one of the holiest sites of Islam. The unforgettable call to prayer that sounds five times a day there (and throughout the Muslim world), the seriousness with which the adherents engage in worship, and the visual splendor of the golden dome and azure walls all combine to deeply impact any visitor with his eyes and ears open. It’s grand. It’s architecturally beautiful.

There’s nothing like it in the world.

These locations testify to an enormity and weight of the religions they represent. They amaze us and can leave us asking, What does Christianity have to rival Shwedagon, Angkor, or the Dome of the Rock? Do you ever wonder that? You probably have if you’ve lain in bed at night with the sound of Hindu festival drums pulsing through your open window, testifying to the power of a religion that claims 850 million adherents. Or if you’ve awakened in an African village to the Muslim call to prayer and felt very small and helpless before a religion that holds 1.6 billion in its grip.

What is Christianity’s answer to the show-of-force made by the other religions of the world? How can we tell the world that, besides Jesus, “there is none other name under heaven, given among men” by which they can be saved?[5] What is our answer to religions with more adherents, more assets, and what often appears to be more fervor and zeal? Evangelical Christianity has no edifices like Shwedagon. It has no rituals that a billion people practice daily like Islam’s salat (prayer). What is our answer?

The Resurrection.

The resurrection is Christianity’s answer to the religions of the world. It was God’s answer to the raging nations that crucified the Lord of glory in exact fulfillment of His divine decree. It was Heaven’s answer to the Power of darkness that thought it had dealt the coup de grace to Immanuel that dark Friday afternoon. It was the Father’s answer to the Son’s unflinching obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. And it’s our answer today. Consider three things the resurrection proclaims to the religions of the world.

1.Our Christ is better.

When Jesus emerged from His tomb early on a Sunday morning two thousand years ago, He demonstrated His authority over death. “No one,” He had said, “taketh [my life] from me….I have power to lay it down, and…to take it again.”[6] That’s exactly what He did. On that day, God demonstrated Jesus’ identity as the Divine Son: He was “declared to be the Son of God with power…by the resurrection.”[7] And according to Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill, the resurrection proved God had ordained Jesus as the judge of all the earth.[8] Every member of every religion from every nation in every age will stand at His bar and confess His identify one day.

Death’s Conqueror, Son of God, Judge of all the earth: this is Jesus Christ. Easter proclaims that He is better than any leader of any other religion. Religions claim to be different paths up the mountain to God, but Christianity is God leaving the mountain and pitching His tent among us. The One who hung on the cross was actually God. The resurrection proves that.

2.Our life is fuller.

Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”[9] He can give that life because of His authority over death. Our lives aren’t full because of blessings like clothes, health, money, or even freedom from sorrow and pain. They’re full because they’re anchored in the life of the One who cannot die. The New Testament ties many spiritual blessings to the resurrection.

• The resurrection proves that our justification was accomplished (Rom 4:25).
• The resurrection is the basis for our new birth and living hope (1 Pet 1:3).
• The resurrection assures us that, though hard, sanctification is possible (Rom 6:4).

When we tell the nations about our faith, we offer a life that is better than anything they could find in this world. Forgiveness is real! New life is a present experience! And sin loses its grip because of the resurrection. Let the world keep its rituals, temples, and systems. Easter proclaims that life is fuller for Christians.

3.Our hope is firmer.

Our full life includes a firm hope in a coming life that will be even better. If this weren’t true, we would have nothing to offer the nations. Paul himself said, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”[10] Our faith is not a crutch to get us through this life.

In fact, Christians’ faith is more often a cross – an instrument of their deaths in this life. Yet even in the face of death we have firm hope that reaches far beyond the grave. Paul writes, “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies.”[11] Our full lives here portend fuller lives hereafter. The glory of Christian hope is that we will experience what Jesus accomplished in resurrection. No karma; no wondering whether we’ll make it. Glorious, powerful, certain resurrection.

There’s nothing like it in the world.

[1] http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/10135-their-weight-in-gold-how-material-wealth-creates-spiritual-energy-in-some-of-the-world-s-costliest-holy-places.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayon

[5] Acts 4:12

[6] John 10:18

[7] Rom 1:4. There is scholarly discussion on the phrase “with power” that is beyond the scope of this post, but whether the phrase modifies “Son of God” or “declared,” this verse still demonstrates that God (re)declared Christ’s Sonship at the resurrection.

[8] Acts 17:30-31

[9] John 10:10

[10] 1 Cor 15:19

[11] Rom 8:11