You must sing the title, as in Fiddler on the Roof! Go back and try it if you did not; this blog post will improve greatly with the sound of the song ringing in your ears. Paul’s beautiful demonstration of the reality of Christ’s resurrection is based on the tradition of the early Church, of which Paul himself is certainly a part, and this tradition is based on the experience of the first followers. The language of tradition, of “handing on” – “I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) – is significant because the experience of the Christians is a proof of the reality of the resurrection. I recall at a conference having a disagreement with a fellow theologian who argued that there was no “proof” of the resurrection, that faith was the only reason Christians could proclaim it. I agree that faith is essential to grasping and accepting the resurrection, but Paul’s claim is that there are witnesses. Is not the testimony of these witnesses “proof” of the resurrection? I think it is. Think of a court case: sometimes there is physical evidence – especially now it is available since forensic science is so advanced – but sometimes there is only testimony of witnesses. Why should we believe or disbelieve the testimony of witnesses?

Here is what Paul says of these witnesses and of the events they witnessed regarding Jesus Christ:

that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, Christ appeared to more
than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles. (1 Corinthians 15:4-8)

Witnesses proclaimed him dead and then they proclaimed, strangely and shockingly, that he was alive! What is so wonderful about the resurrection, apart from gaining life for the Corinthians and for us, is that it is attested by our brothers and sisters in Christ, who stated that they had witnessed it. I trust them.

We should be attentive to the reality of tradition – it is the experiences of our brothers and sisters in Christ – not something distant and far from us. It is the lived life of the community of followers of Jesus. Some of us, naturally, struggle in this life, such as Paul – “For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me. Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed” (1 Corinthians 15:9-13). By the grace of God, we are what we are, we testify to our life in Christ, and so we believe. This is the tradition which we maintain and continue.

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.