One of the more difficult classes I had in Art school involved a professor with a Sharpie marker. I don’t think I ever saw him without his Sharpie in his hand. It was his signature. And at first encounter, it seemed his dagger. You see, the class wasn’t difficult because the assignments were too advanced; the class was difficult because Dr. Sharpie had no qualms about drawing thick black slashes across our “masterpieces.” Sure, it was just a class assignment, but we worked at it and we produced art – and works of art are like your children. You labor to bring them into existence and they bear some of your own soul. You lift one out of the cradle of your portfolio and display her with pride and then Professor Permanent X. Marker defiles her! It’s an inky stab to the heart. But as the semester goes by, you come to understand the value of valid critique. Thank goodness the man with the marker had a clue about what he was doing.
In today’s reading, Paul begins by re-drawing the portrait of the gospel he had rendered for the Corinthians when he first preached to them. There are three panels to the portrait – the first, of God’s Anointed One dying for the sins of the world; the second, of that same Savior buried and sealed in a tomb; and the third, of a Risen Savior appearing to many after His conquest of the grave. Paul reminds them that he is one of those eyewitnesses to the triumphant Jesus; an encounter by God's pure grace and for personal transformation.
So how, Paul puzzles, can somebody come along (who has no clue what they’re doing) and deface the gospel masterpiece? And how could the Corinthian Christians accept that thoughtless revision – that big black Sharpie “X” across the third panel of the portrait? No resurrection?! What?! Let me restore this for you, is Paul’s response. Watch me re-draw this for you so you will really understand how significant it is. “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”
If Jesus is not risen from the dead then, in spite of all the great things He taught and did, death would remain the final victor. If Christ is swallowed up by the grave, then this huge question mark gets drawn over the entirety of His life and work? Was He really who He said He was? How can He save anyone if He can’t save Himself? The portrait would remain unfinished and what would be the end of us who put our faith in Him? Must the canvas always fade to black?
No, Paul declares! In the chiaroscuro of the passion, Jesus emerges. From the deep shadows of the cross and the tomb, the Lord comes victorious. Now everything He said and did has the endorsement of an unconquerable life. He is Invictus; the one and only. Don’t let anyone deface or defile the gospel for you. Know and understand the great masterpiece God has painted in the portrait of the dead, buried and risen Christ. Let the revisionists and the revolters slash away with their Sharpies. “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead … [and] He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
And it is (already) finished.
Pray: Risen and Exalted One, you are alive forevermore. And I am alive forever in You. Thank you that you looked upon me, as You did Paul, with great compassion and grace. Thank you for transforming my dead-in-sinness into everlasting-living!
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