When asked about his views about the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh former Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins, rather famously replied by saying, "Oh, the resurrection? It's a conjuring trick with bones." When challenged about this statement, he tried to backpedal but did not retract the "conjuring trick" language, instead reiterating "a conjuring trick with bones proves only that somebody's very clever at a conjuring trick with bones." Jenkins thought of himself as a slaughterer of sacred cows. Unfortunately, the doctrine of the resurrection was not a mere sacred cow, but a divine act of the eternal Son of God. It is perilous to slaughter the truth of God's Word. God's Son, when He brought life, did not merely resuscitate those who had fainted as though this were a conjuring trick with bones, but he raised the dead in such a way that He Himself could rise from the dead. Which is easier for God? That He should graciously give life to those who are baptized into Christ our Lord so that they are made deathless? Or that He should merely raise bodily the widow's son (Lk 7:11-19) or Lazarus (Jn 11)? All those who were thus raised subsequently died. We who have been raised to newness of life, after dying in the waters of baptism, will never die again (Heb  9:27).

Those who would question God's power to raise the dead call into question the power of God to give newness of life in the sacraments. Which is easier to say, "Be raised" or to say, "Your sins are forgiven you"? If the resurrection is a conjuring trick with bones, what is the new life of baptism? The God who cannot raise the dead cannot bestow new life, salvation, and the forgiveness of sins. Baptism then simply becomes "Splash Town" for the church, or what Luther's enthusiasts called the "dog's bath." The Lord Jesus instead shows that He has power over death in His resurrection. He has power over my death. He has power to give me life at the font, because He has an indestructible life at the open tomb.

"The Lord truly seems to me not to have spoken in vain to the people of Capernaum, when He said to Himself, as in the person of men, 'Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, "Physician, heal yourself."' (Lk 4:23). For it was appropriate for Him, when He had accustomed men to the miracle of the resurrection in other bodies, to confirm His word in His own humanity. You saw the thing proclaimed accomplished in others; those about to die (Jn 4:49), the child which had just ceased to live (Mt 9:18), the young man at the edge of the grave (Lk 7:11-19), the decaying corpse (Jn 11:39), all alike restored by one command to life. Dost you seek for those who have been killed by wounds and bloodshed? Does any weakness of life giving power hinder the grace in those whom He raised? Behold Him whose hands were pierced with nails! Behold Him whose side was transfixed with a spear. Pass your fingers through the print of the nails. Thrust your hand into the spear wound (Jn 20:27). You can surely imagine how far in the spear point would reach, if you compare the path in to the width of the external scar. For the wound that gives admission to a man's hand, shows to what depth the iron entered. If He then has been raised, well may we utter the Apostle's exclamation, 'How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead' (1Co 15:12).