Does It Matter Whether or Not the Tomb Was Really Empty or Whether Anything Extraordinary Actually Happened to the Corpse of Jesus? Not Really, According to Marcus Borg! March 5, 2013 – Speaking at Calvary Episcopal Church’s Lenten Preaching Series, Marcus Borg looks toward the empty tomb to explore the resurrection. Borg describes the essence of his sermon saying, “He agreed with the more than 90% of American Christians who stated in a poll that the resurrection of Jesus “mattered greatly” to them. He disagreed with them, though, that the resurrection was “physical” or “bodily.” This, he believes, would turn it “into an utterly spectacular event that happened once a long time ago.” Borg points out that, “In the gospels and the New Testament as a whole, the meaning of Easter is twofold. First, Jesus lives; and second, Jesus is Lord. Both convictions flow out of his followers’ experiences of him after his death.” Jesus continues to be “a present reality,” and “his followers continue to experience the same spirit” that “they had known in and around him in his historical lifetime,” the Spirit of God. “‘Jesus is Lord’ is the constant affirmation of the New Testament. It has even been called the earliest Christian creed” because “Easter is about the transformation of the world. Easter is about saying ‘Yes’ to the passion of Jesus. He’s still here, still recruiting.”   Enjoy:

Listen to Marcus Borg’s March 6th podcast about this sermon here  as well as a preview of of Dr. Borg’s upcoming book.