Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter

by Timothy J. Keller

Yuval Harari believes that people turned to God for hope in the past because of an inability to understand or control the natural environment. But religion addressed something much deeper than that. The human dilemma from time immemorial has not only been about how to control nature “out there” but—the far more difficult challenge—how to control nature “in here,” that is, the many enigmas and problems of human nature itself. We hunger for meaning and purpose. We find that things that we thought would bring us satisfaction do not. We are shocked at the evil things other human beings—and we ourselves—are capable of doing. What can we do about us? As Sullivan indicates, controlling external nature is not enough, and there is plenty of evidence in a year of the COVID-19 pandemic that we are far from having done even that.

When I was in college I took courses studying the religions of the world. Looking back on my studies, it became clear than no other faith started by saying, “Above all and before everything else, you must believe that these historical events happened.” Certainly all the religions had origin stories and accounts of various heroes of the faith. But such stories were provided primarily as examples to emulate. The main message was “Live in this way and find the path of wisdom and you will find unity with the infinite.” Christianity opens not with “Here’s how you have to live,” but “Here’s what Jesus did for you in history.” First, he died for our sins and was buried, and second, he was raised to life on the third day and he appeared to many eyewitnesses.

Did the resurrection happen? Yes, but you will be able to accept it only if you let it confront not only your reason and head but also your self-image and the commitments of your heart.