Around Easter time, CBS aired the mini-series, "Jesus". Their presentation reached the resurrection story with about ten minutes left of the four-hour broadcast. The women find the empty tomb, Peter and John run to see, and leave again. As they're returning to tell the rest what they've seen, Mary Magdalene has her encounter with the risen Jesus. She returns to tell the disciples what she's seen. Thomas is with them. He expresses his doubts and almost immediately Jesus appears. He addresses doubting Thomas, gives them an abbreviated form of the Great Commission, and ascends to Heaven, presumably forever. All of this apparently takes place in one day. In the Bible, there are forty days between the resurrection and the ascension. The CBS version left out the appearances of angels, the week between Thomas' doubts and their resolution, and the many other appearances of Jesus. This whole part of the timeline was given short shrift.
Also around this time, ABC aired a special report, "In Search Of Jesus". They started hitting the resurrection account with about eight minutes left in their two-hour time slot. While the predominant message of the evening was "The gospels can't be trusted", complete with quotes from the "Jesus Seminar" founders (sigh), at this point the experts they were interviewing were sure that something extraordinary must have happened to the disciples. Nothing necessarily happened to Jesus, but something must have given his followers a morale boost. Still, it seemed that the producers of this report thought the resurrection was only a minor part of the story of Jesus.
While it was somewhat heartening that this material would make it to primetime network television at all, it was also disheartening that they would misunderstand the situation so badly. The resurrection is absolutely the most important event. Without it, Christianity would not exist. No matter how good a man Jesus was, no matter how respected his teaching, the movement would had died shortly after he did, unless he didn't stay dead. We can say this with a large degree of assurance because that's exactly what happened to the other would-be Messiahs that popped up before and after Jesus. They were killed and their followers either went home or joined up with next Big Thing. For Christianity to continue and thrive as it did, the disciples had to have something that none of the other messianic movements had. A large number of people must have been convinced that Jesus was alive, that miracles were happening, and that the Holy Spirit was moving and working in their lives. That same conviction has been carried to the present day.
This, then, is the Good News. This is the Gospel. God's unfailing love found a way to satisfy the demands of his unmarred holiness. The punishment for sin was laid on God himself. If Jesus had only died, just as any other man, nothing would have been accomplished. But, just as Jesus was raised to new life, those who place their trust in him receive new life. This new life doesn't start after physical death. It starts right away. As our old self dies a spiritual death, we are given a new spirit for serving God in this world, full of power and joy, preparing us for service in the world to come.