In his book Surprised by Hope, British scholar N.T. Wright mentions an interesting misunderstanding about the meaning of Yeshua’s resurrection. It is an objection, really, made by some scholars to the popular understanding of this age, the Age to Come, and Yeshua’s resurrection. Wright paraphrases a complaint by John Dominic Crossan:

Even if Jesus did rise from the dead, so what? Very nice for him, but what has it got to do with anything else? Why should he be so specially favored? If God can pull off a stunt like that, why can’t he intervene and do a lot more useful things like stopping genocide or earthquakes?

It really is a good question to ask, though it sounds dangerous to speak critically of God or Yeshua or the Bible. But whether this question, put in so startling a form, has occurred to you before or not, it gets to the heart of the problem of faith.

Is there a point to believing in God and his kingdom? Why does it seem to make so little difference here and now? Is it all just a vague future hope which comforts us while we wait for it to hopefully appear?