Why is Jesus, one who was crucified, relevant in 2011? Why was he still remembered as Messiah when other executed messianic candidates were quickly forgotten, or remembered, at best, as failures? Wright says the following (from Jesus and the Victory of God, pp. 658-9):

“Why then did people go on talking about Jesus of Nazareth, except as a remarkable tragic memory? The obvious answer is the one given by all early Christians actually known to us (as opposed to those invented by modern mythographers): Jesus was raised from the dead. This, of course, raised other questions which can only be dealt with in another book: what did they mean by that? What actually happened? Was it something that happened to Jesus, or simply to the disciples? Why did whatever-it-was-that-happened generate the sort of movement that emerged? The resurrection, however we understand it, was the only reason they came up with for supposing that Jesus stood for anything other than a dream that might have come true but didn’t. It was the only reason why his life and words possessed any relevance two weeks, let alone two millennia, after his death.”