What is the meaning of life? Such a deep question that everyone ponders at some point. Why am I here? What’s the point? This single question can lead to unspeakable joy, or utter destruction. Most are confronted with this question, but are content to dismiss it and move on, blindly living each day as it comes, letting life lead them where it may. In terms of The Matrix, most people will take blue pill. They reason it is best to just leave the question alone so that they can live “happily ever after”, or at least free from the burden of the truth. Or think of Forrest Gump. The movie begins and ends with a feather flowing through the air, signifying that life has no real goal or purpose, but just sort of takes you where it may. Hopefully, the winds of life happen to lead you into some pretty good times. But, there is no meaning to life. The Bible would agree…under one condition: Jesus did not raise from the dead.
“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” – Morpheus, The Matrix
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes some pretty harsh and hopeless words about Christians. He says that our preaching and our faith are in vain (v. 14), that our sins are still held against us (v. 17), that all of our brothers and sisters who died have perished (v.18), and that we above all are most to be pitied (v. 19). Wow, being a Christian sounds about as hopeless and pointless as anything. And indeed it is, if, Paul says, Christ has not been raised from the dead.
The whole of the Christian faith lies on the fact that three days after Christ’s death, the tomb was empty because Christ walked out of it. He was dead, but now He is alive. There is a point to life. We don’t have to just “eat, drink, and be merry” (1 Cor. 15:32) as we party our lives away. Instead, we can live this life looking forward to the next one. Jesus Christ rose, and this means that we will too. Death has no victory. It has no sting. (1 Cor. 15:54-56). As Christ walked out of the grave, it is as if He was declaring “Death does not have the final word for those who have put their trust in Me.”
At the end of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul makes a beautiful conclusion. He spent much of the chapter stressing the significance of Christ’s resurrection, and the shocking consequences if it was not true. But now, as he gets ready to close out his letter, he tell us what the point of life really is as a result of the resurrection. If Christ was raised from the dead, then we are called to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58). This life is not pointless. It is not in vain. It’s a life we get to live serving a God who has already defeated the one thing man himself will never conquer, no matter how hard we’ve tried: death.