I had an interesting conversation on the phone with my mother a few years ago. She told me she had been going to a Bible study at her church, led by her pastor, and he was saying that it was Jesus’ body that was raised from the dead. She has been in the church most of her life, but somehow that had never gotten through. She told me that she had always thought that it was Jesus’ spirit that was raised from the dead, and so she wanted to know if her pastor was telling her the right thing. I explained that not only was it right, it was a very important part of the Christian faith. I probably explained a little too much. I went into how the Greeks, whose thinking was dominant in that culture, believed that anything material, like the body, was bad, and that only spirit was good. And because that thinking was a dominate part of the culture of that day, many followers of Christ embraced the error of the Greeks and drifted into what we now consider heresy. Some of them started to believe that Jesus’ body could not have been raised, since the body was material and therefore evil. They began to believe that their own bodies were bad, and that caused all kinds of strange behavior, for some Christians began to think, “Well, my body is evil, so it doesn’t matter what I do with it.” This led to all kinds of sin, and certainly to a gross misunderstanding of God’s good creation and gifts. The biblical concept is that all the created material world is good and it belongs to God. Our bodies are a part of that good creation and will one day be raised, just as Christ’s body was.
So the first important point that we will consider today is: The resurrection of Jesus was physical. It was not just his spirit that floated out of that stone grave on the first Easter. The stone was rolled away and the body was nowhere to be seen. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay” (Matthew 28:5-6). The women are on their way to tell the disciples that an angel had appeared to them and told them that Jesus had risen from the dead, when all of a sudden Jesus appeared to them. And when he did, they fell at his feet and worshiped him. This was not an apparition, but a body with feet. They recognized his physical appearance. But the Bible reports that the apostles, being typical bone-headed guys, “did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (Luke 24:11). The two followers of Jesus on the road to Emmaus would later say, “Some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive” (Luke 24:22-23). It was not just that his spirit was alive, his body was alive as well. So when we say that Jesus is alive, we do not just mean that his influence still lives on in the world today.
This was a body that you could touch and feel; one that could eat and speak. When Jesus appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they did not recognize him immediately. But he sat down and ate with them, and the Bible says they went to where the disciples were and, “told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread” (Luke 24:35). As they were telling their experience to the other disciples, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” The Bible says, “They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, ‘Do you have anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence” (Luke 24:37-43). The disciples thought they were seeing a ghost, but Jesus’ resurrection body was very real.
Then you will remember the story of Thomas, the disciple known as “Doubting Thomas.” When the other disciples tell him that they have seen the risen Lord, he says to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” (John 20:25). So Christ, in his great mercy and grace, appears to Thomas. The Bible says, “A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’” (John 20:26-29). You can’t feel a ghost. You can’t put your finger into the wound of an apparition. Jesus’ body was a real, material body.
The second point is that: The resurrection of Jesus is mystery. There are many things about the resurrection that I don’t understand. Even with this very real body, he could pass through the stone grave. Evidently, the stone was rolled away from the tomb, not to let Jesus out, but to let the followers of Jesus in. He had to have a body like ours, but it was different as well. I don’t understand how the real body of the resurrected Jesus could walk through closed doors, as he did when he appeared to the disciples who had locked themselves in a room. I don’t understand how a body that could walk through walls could eat, or how that same body could be touched and felt. It’s a mystery. But I’m okay with that. I don’t have to understand everything. I like mystery.
It has been my habit for many years now to read the Bible through every year. I love the Word of God. Every year I do this, I understand things that I did not understand before. And every year I do this, I have new questions, in fact, sometimes I think I have more questions than answers. There are many things about the Bible I don’t understand. I have gotten beyond having to have everything nailed down and tied in neat little bundles. I don’t have everything figured out, and I have come to the place where I don’t have to have it all together. Actually, it takes a lot of stress off. And I like mystery and wonder. It keeps life interesting. It’s a challenge. It’s an adventure. It gives me something to investigate and think about. I feel badly for those who have to have everything figured out. There are a lot of people who will never believe in Christ or the resurrection because they do not have enough intellectual proof. What hubris to think that we should, or could, understand all things, and that everything we cannot understand is not worth believing.
I used to read books that gave 124 reasons for believing in the resurrection. I liked the books giving evidence that demanded a verdict, as though, if we just had enough proof, we could convince the world that God exists and they would believe. I don’t think that happens much. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that the Christian faith is reasonable and rational. We are not talking about flying blue elephants and fairies. The Christian faith has plenty of historical and rational evidence to back it up, and that is important to me. Faith is not just accepting every wild notion that comes down the road. It is not about being gullible. In fact, the more I see how interrelated the Bible is and how much it is tied to the real world, the more convinced I am about the reliability of Scripture and the validity of the faith.
But I don’t have to have proof for everything, nor do I have to understand everything before I accept it. I don’t understand my television, but I still turn it on and watch it. I believe it is real. I don’t understand my cell phone, but I use it every day. I don’t understand God, but I believe in him, trust him and love him. I’m glad I don’t have him all figured out, because that means that there is so much more of him that I still have to know. To think that I could understand the eternal God who fills the universe is the height of arrogance.
Jesus is God. He was not just a great man who lived 2,000 years ago. He is God who was in the beginning and the world was made through him. In speaking of Jesus, the Bible says, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3). This is a mystery, but if Jesus created the world, it would certainly be no problem for him to come back from the dead. We may not understand how God does what he does, but we do understand that he is God. We have come in contact with this God, and we know we can trust him, even when we don’t understand. Life, then, becomes like reading a book by a great author, with whom we are familiar, whose story line is confusing — there are surprising twists and turns — and that is what makes the book interesting and exciting. But you know this author, and you know that in the end he will bring the story to a fascinating conclusion. We need to enjoy the mystery, and stop hunting for and demanding a scientific explanation and proof for everything.
The final point is: The resurrection of Jesus means hope. Just because something is a mystery does not mean there is no certainty, or that we can’t know anything. How God does what he does is a mystery, but who God is, is not a mystery. We don’t know how God does what he does, but we know that he does what he does because of the kind of God he is. We will not be floating spirits somewhere; the Bible tells us that we will have new bodies, just as Jesus did. We will not have bodies exactly like our present bodies, but they will be real bodies nonetheless. Here is how Paul explains it, as he compares our present body to a seed which is planted, and our future body to the plant that is the product of the seed: “But someone may ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?’ How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined” (1 Corinthians 15:35-38).
What this means is that heaven is much more real than we often think. We will have new bodies that will never die or grow old, and we will live on a new earth that will be a paradise. The Bible says, “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17). The apostle Peter wrote, “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Peter 3:12-13). It is going to be more wonderful than anything we can imagine. The Bible says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
I was out hiking in the woods one day when the weather was so perfect and the woods and sky so beautiful that I said to myself, “This is heaven to me. If this was all heaven was, I would not be disappointed at all.” But heaven is so much more than this, and so much greater than anything I can imagine, that it causes great anticipation and excitement within me. The best the earth has to offer is only a hint of what is yet to come.
Jesus said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). We have this promise from God: “The one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence” (2 Corinthians 4:14).
Unfortunately, there are some people who have no hope at all. They live in a kind of existential pessimism and despair. Bertrand Russell was a brilliant thinker, but because he made no room for God in his thoughts, he could not figure out the mystery of life. He once said, “When I die, I believe that I shall rot, and that that is the end.” He went on to say, “All the labors of the ages — the inspiration, the noonday brightness of human genius — are destined to extinction. The whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried in the debris of a universe in ruins.” Now there’s something to cheer your day! But when you exclude God from your life and thinking there is no other way to think.
By way of contrast, I think of Joni Eareckson Tada who is a woman in a wheelchair. Many of you know her story. In her youth she was an athletic teenager, but in 1967 she broke her neck in a tragic diving accident in Chesapeake Bay. She has written several books, including one on her life story. Because of her paralysis, she cannot feed or bathe herself, or care for her most basic needs. She is a deeply committed Christian, and even as a quadriplegic she sings, and she paints with a paint brush in her mouth. Sue and I often get Christmas cards with her artwork on them. She often talks of heaven and what it will mean for her. She says, “I have hope in the future. The Bible speaks about bodies being glorified. I know the meaning of that now. It’s the time after my death here when I, the quadriplegic, will be on my feet dancing.”
The resurrection is real, and it is for us. We don’t understand everything, and there are many unanswered questions, but one question we do not have is whether God cares for us and can be trusted. Just knowing who he is settles the dismaying questions of my heart with great peace and wonderful confidence.
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
Rodney J. Buchanan
Easter - April 8, 2012
Amity United Methodist Church
rodbuchanan2000@yahoo.com
