What Are You Looking For? Part 1: The Nicene Creed

In Accordance With The Scriptures

In Accordance With the Scriptures

            The crafters of the Nicene Creed put this phrase because it was vitally important for people to understand that the Resurrection wasn’t something that happened in the dark.  Okay, so it probably physically happened in the dark, but not scripturally.  In fact, nothing in the life of Jesus was not prophesied about or pre-figured in the Old Testament.  One could argue that’s why the Old Testament exists in the first place.  It existed to show the Jewish people of Jesus day just who he was.  It existed to prepare them for the coming Messiah.  Some listened, most did not.

            In the first post-Ascension sermon preached by St. Peter on the Day of Pentecost, he speaks of the Resurrection as revealed in Old Testament scripture when he quotes Psalm 16.  “’Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted; my flesh, too will dwell in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world, nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.  You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’” (Acts 2:26-28, quoting Psalm 16: 9-11 NABRE)  St. Peter then goes on to explain how David clearly was prophesying about Jesus and his Resurrection, since David was dead and “his tomb is in our midst to this day”.  (Acts 2: 29 NABRE)  For the Apostles, the Old Testament was the go-to source for proving Jesus was the Messiah and that he died and rose again in fulfillment of the Old Testament.  There were a couple of reasons for this.  First, they were speaking first of all to the Jews who knew the Old Testament.  Secondly, the New Testament hadn’t been written yet. 

            For us, there is even more proof that everything in the life of Christ is in accordance with the Scriptures.  We not only have the Old Testament, we have the gospels.  We have the letters.  We have millennia of writings by brilliant men and women explaining all the connections.  And yet for all of the information at our fingertips, for some reason for some it’s harder to believe now than it was then.  Maybe distance is the problem.  After all, the Resurrection happened a very long time ago.  Maybe in ancient Jerusalem that first Pentecost, it was a lot easier to believe the tomb was empty because you could walk over and see it.  We can’t today.  And even if we are fortunate enough to be able to see the empty tomb, today it looks nothing like what it did then.  Except that it’s still empty. 

Maybe it’s because after millennia have changed the world, it’s hard to remember what a transcendent moment the Resurrection was.  For many today, the phrase should be, He “rose again on the third day in accordance with” what we’ve always been taught.  By the Church, (all Christian Churches here, not just the Catholic Church) by tradition – it’s what our parents and grandparents believed, therefore it’s what I say is true as well.  By habit.  If I say I’m a Christian, then (at least on Easter) Jesus rose from the dead, blah, blah, blah. 

            But he didn’t rise from the dead in accordance with the Church.  Or tradition.  Or habit.  He rose in accordance with the scripture.  He rose, because God said he would.  And when God says something is going to happen, it does.  It was a real event that really happened and it still has a real impact on our lives today.  The only way Jesus could prove he had conquered death was to rise again.  The only way he could prove that the Resurrection of the Dead was a fact of life, was to rise from the dead.  And all of that was prophesied about in the Old Testament.  It was all (like everything else in Jesus’ life) in accordance with the Scripture.