Christ and Culture

Andy Crouch, in his book, Culture Making, writes of Christ and culture. In writing about the cultural impact of the resurrection, he writes:

"It is fundamentally a statement of bald historical fact: the resurrection, if indeed it happened as Jesus' followers proclaimed, changed more of subsequent human history, for more people and more cultures, than any other event we can name. And if the resurrection did not happen, then something else of extraordinary historical power happened in an amazingly short span of time in Judea and Palestine in the 30s and 40s of the common era." The question is if the resurrection did not happen... what did happen?

Crouch makes two great points here; the first is that something great happened! If it was not the resurrection than it was something great. Whatever happened involved Jesus. It had to involved Him, or else it would not have had his name attached to it. Crouch's point is that in such a short period of time, Jesus radically changed general culture and all other cultures across the world!

I deal with rumors and gossip as both are present in a school setting. I can attest to the fact that rumor and gossip have two elements: one, there is some truth to them, although very little, and two, deceit is a rumor's largest component by far and usually leads to the rumor's own demise. My point: rumors and gossip do not cause widespread sweeping change in culture; they merely ruin reputations, friendships and families, and almost always come back full circle to ruin the one who started them in the first place. The resurrection was clearly not a rumor.

The only explanation plausible is this: the resurrection was true. It has stood the test of time. It has changed culture. It has changed the world. If something else took place then someone would have the answer to the following question: if the resurrection did not happen then what did happen?

What happened was that God became man in order to save man. He lived as man for 33 years and willingly took on death, death on a cross because He loved so much. He died and was buried, and three days later, He rose again and ascended to heaven where He waits to come again in His perfect timing to claim those who believe in Him.

It sounds strange and bizarre, but is it really any more bizarre than anything else we hear these days? If you want to know more then please read the gospel of John. It will be time well spent. Blessings!