In cruciform theology, we centralise the message that Jesus reveals the character and nature of God. We see this most especially in His excruciating and humiliating death on the cross where He demonstrates self sacrificial love and an inversion of human understandings of power. It would be easy to end there, but the vindication of His death in resurrection is something profoundly important.

It is helpful to remind ourselves from the relevant Bible passages of how Peter and Paul viewed this miraculous event: “22 “You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know- 23 this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. 24 But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.” (Acts 2:22–24)

“3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4)

Within cruciform theology there are a variety of views that typically rest somewhere between conservative Biblical literalism and progressive deism. As far as I know (but I’m happy to be hear otherwise), most accept the reality of the resurrection based upon Bible passages like 1 Corinthians 15:12–20:

“12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. 15 We 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. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. 17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. 19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.”

One of the reasons it is often taken as a non-negotiable is because it forms the foundation of many atonement theories. For example in Christus Victor, in the resurrection, “Father and Son are united in defeating Satan’s system of sin, death and condemnation under the Law.” while in the Scapegoat Theory, the “key is His resurrection which, by enabling all to see His perfect innocence, revealed to humanity its propensity for violence.”

In my variation of Gerharde Forde’s idea which encompasses several atonement theories as outcomes rather than the main purpose of Christ’s death, His “vindication (through resurrection) following complete submission and abasement enables us to finally understand that God is not distant and wrathful but relational and loving.”

However all this, while I hope interesting, seems to me still somewhat abstract. What does the resurrection do for us? I’m thankful to Matthew DiStefano for a good answer to that. It’s funny because it was his book that caused me cognitive dissonance as I struggled with the ideas of Ernest Becker that he introduced, particularly that in short “we invent religions because we can’t cope with the thought of dying”. Although my faith passed through the turbulence, coming out with new insights, it is only now that I have found time to read and reach the point in DiStefano’s book where he addresses how Christianity solves death anxiety and avoids being yet another “hero system”.

He describes the horrific tortures that early Christians endured as they were martyred. These were people who must have been able to overcome their death anxiety since they chose not to worship the Roman idols as a way out. Furthermore, these believers would not have been able to go through such ordeals had they not had something to inspire them far more true to them than the dominant Roman immortality system that was offered. Instead of an alternate hero system competing for supremacy through power and violence, they clung to the certainty of resurrection where rather than denying mortality and protecting the heroic self, they were prepared to give of themselves and peacefully relinquish their lives for something greater.

Although we may not be called to die physically for our faith, the resurrection frees us of our fear of death enabling us to cease holding on to self and give of ourselves for the sake of others.