Resurrection is a central tenant of the Christian faith and Easter is the primary celebration of resurrection.
What does resurrection mean? There are about as many different explanations of Christ’s resurrection as there are Christians.
For a whole lot of Christians, “believing in the resurrection” means believing in the actual physical resuscitation of Jesus’ body. But for many, and for people of other religions, the physical resuscitation of Jesus’ body is simply out of the question because it lies beyond reason.
“I do deny the resurrection!”
In my sacred imagination, I can see the Apostle Paul smiling and nodding. You see, Paul was skilled in the ancient art of rhetoric. Inflammatory rhetoric is a method of speaking designed to capture the attention of those upon whom it is inflicted. Paul was skilled at it and employs the tactic well. Paul addresses the squabbling Followers of the Way in Corinth this way: “Tell me, if we proclaim that CHRIST was raised from the dead, how is it that some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead then not even CHRIST has been raised. And if CHRIST has not been raised, then all of our preaching has been meaningless – and everything you’ve believed has been just as meaningless. Indeed, we are shown to be false witnesses of God, for we solemnly swore that God raised Christ from the dead – which did not happen if in fact the dead are not raised. Because if the dead are not raised, then Christ is not raised, and if Christ is not raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins, and those who have fallen asleep in Christ are the deadest of the dead. If our hopes in Christ are limited to this life only, we are the most pitiful of all the human race.”
I’m with the Apostle Paul when it comes to the resurrection. Questions about the nature of the resurrection were annoying to Paul. So much so that he used pretty strong language in his letter to the church at Corinth, “Perhaps someone will ask, “How are the dead to be raised up? What kind of body will they have? What a stupid question!”
Like the Apostle Paul, my faith in the reality of resurrection does not hinge on the physical resuscitation of a corpse. As Paul writes, “The sun has one kind of brightness, the moon another, and the stars another. And star differs from star in brightness. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is a perishable body, what is raised is incorruptible. What is sown is ignoble, what is raised is glorious. Weakness is sown, strength is raised up. A natural body is sown, and a spiritual body is raised up. If there is a natural body, then there is also a spiritual body.” So says the earliest explanation we have of Jesus’ resurrection.
As a Pharisee, Paul believed in the resurrection of the dead and certainly he believed that Jesus had been raised from the dead. But as for our question about an actual physical body, Paul insists that this is simply a stupid question. For heaven’s sake, when you sow a seed into the ground and it bursts forth into new life, that new life doesn’t come in the form of a seed, it comes to life as a plant! Not all bodies are the same! The Apostle Paul did not need there to be an actual physical resuscitation of a body in order to believe that Jesus is risen from the dead.
The writings of the Apostle Paul contain the earliest writings that we have on the subject of the Resurrection. And his understanding of resurrection was good enough for the early followers of the way. Paul’s description of resurrection does not conflict with our 21st century inability to accept the suspension of the natural order of the universe. Paul never described Jesus’ resurrection as a physical resuscitation of Jesus’ corpse.
Indeed in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul denies that Jesus’ resurrection was an actual physical resurrection.
The dualism of body and soul was a Greek idea. For the Jews there could be no resurrection without a resurrection of the body. This spiritual resurrection that Paul describes gave birth to Christianity, within the Jewish context. It wasn’t until Christianity moved beyond Judaism that it came into direct conflict with the Greek understanding of reality, which insisted upon the dualism of body and soul. What we refer to as the soul was a foreign concept to first century Jews.The question of a physical body makes no sense to the ancients.
According to Paul, “A natural body is sown, and a spiritual body is raised up.”
Is it possible that something our 21st century minds would describe as deeply spiritual happened, but that something was not a supernatural resuscitation of a corpse? The supernatural resuscitation of a corpse not only violates the laws of science, it is also difficult to reconcile. Jesus’ life, his teachings, his compassion, his ministry of healing all radiated this power of the divine.
Jesus opened up his disciples’ eyes to this power of God. After the human Jesus died, what if his followers still experienced the power of God that they had seen within Jesus, even though their teacher was no longer with them?
As the power of God never does die.
I believe that the biblical accounts of the risen Christ represent the powerful stories told by the first followers of Jesus. Stories not about the supernatural, but about the mystical experiences of the living power of God in the world. We need not take these stories literally, but we must take them seriously.
When we examine the story of Jesus’ death and the mystical experience of resurrection in metaphorical terms, we can see in the story of the crucifixion the very human nature of Jesus: we see suffering, pain, doubt, and death itself – the inevitable conditions of being human. Yet in the story of the resurrection, we learn that this human condition is not the conclusion – hope exists for all of us.
The powerful message of Christianity becomes one of light and hope: just as Jesus was able to tap into this power and just as Jesus’ life was centred on the power of the divine and radiated it. We too can do the same. We can also experience the divine ground within ourselves and within all of creation.
Although Paul speaks about Jesus’ resurrection as God’s victory over death, the Resurrection isn’t some glorious taming of death, because in the end, we still die – death is still real for us. Paul is not negating the reality of death – he is reminding us that death and the grave are no longer to be feared. Paul insists that death and the grave are very much a part of the journey into the fullness of God’s love – the journey into the presence of the Living God – the journey into the heart and soul of the Living God. Resurrection reminds us that ultimately God will bring life out of death.
The good news about Easter is that resurrection is not limited to Jesus, nor is it limited to the end of our life. Resurrection is not limited to life after death. Resurrection happens throughout creation, over and over throughout our lifetimes. Resurrection can and does happen here and now.
The miracle of Easter is not so much about the resurrection of Jesus as it is about our own resurrections. If the rumours about the empty tomb are to be believed, then we need not look for the living among the dead. Jesus has left the tomb, and if we are to follow Jesus then we too shall have to leave our tombs.
To follow Jesus we will have to leave the old trappings behind like shabby grave clothes, if we are to live in the Light of Christ. The resurrection to which Easter calls us – is our own – and resurrection requires that we prepare to find God where God is by opening ourselves to the world around us with our eyes and ears open wide to new life.
This means that we must be prepared to be surprised by God in strange places, in ways we never thought we’d see and through the words of those we never thought we’d hear.
In Jesus, his followers experienced the love of God. Those who followed and loved Jesus experienced life in ways that were so earth shattering, so mind-blowing, that their lives would never be the same again. The power of the love they experienced in their life with Jesus could not be constrained or ended by Jesus’ death.
Long after they found the empty tomb, Jesus’ loved ones continued to experience his presence in very real ways. In the breaking of the bread, and in the meals they shared together; as they walked the pathways they had walked with Jesus, and fished the waters they had navigated with Jesus.
There in those places they encountered the power of Jesus’ love that could not be limited by death. That love had the power to raise them from their own tombs. And that love has the power to raise us from our tombs.
Those dark caves that hold us captive and keep us from living. By the power of LOVE we can leave behind the tattered grave-clothes that bind us so that we can follow Christ into the light.
Theologian Peter Rollins puts it far better than I ever could, and with him, let me just say:
“I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor;
I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and the oppressed.
Every time I do not serve my neighbour, every time I walk away from the poor.
I deny the resurrection every time I participate in an unjust system.
However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are.
I affirm the resurrection when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees,
I affirm the resurrection when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.
I affirm the resurrection each and every time I look into your eyes and see the face of Christ.”
Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again and again.
This is the mystery of our faith.
Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
Acknowledgments
Patterson, S. J. Beyond the Passion. Rethinking the Death and Life of Jesus. Santa Rosa. Polebridge Press, 2004.
The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith by Marcus J. Borg
The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic by John Shelby Spong
The Letters of Paul by John Shelby Spong