THE BODILY RESURRECTION

Dr. Richard J. Henderson May 4, 2003

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Psalm 4
Luke 24: 36b-48

Introduction

As Christians we believe in the bodily resurrection. We understand that when we die we don't vaporize into some invisible mist; we have some kind of body. We have eternal life, but that life is not just as a spirit or a memory; it is as a resurrection form.

Remember, when we say the Apostle's Creed we say, "I believe in the resurrection of the body." For us it is not only a resurrection of our spirit or soul; all of us is raised to live with God.

My guess is if we asked one hundred Christians, "Do you believe that after death your soul goes heaven? Most would say, "YES." Yet that's not what we believe. It's not what "I believe in the resurrection of the body" is saying.

I

It's not that our bodies die and souls are waffled off to heaven. Jesus rose body and soul. Jesus appeared after his resurrection to many people who saw him in bodily form. The New Testament is clear that the resurrected Jesus is not a ghost.

Ancient Greek thought has influenced a lot of our contemporary thinking. The Greeks believed in a dualism between the body and the soul. They considered the body bad and the spirit good.

So when we die, as this thinking goes, the bad body disintegrates and the good soul lives on. But this concept divided the body in a way that it really can't be separated. Our body affects our spirit, and our spirits affect our bodies.

In Christianity we don't have this dualism. We don't believe the body is evil and the spirit good. God created us as whole people - body and soul. Our selves are not divided.

God created us good. Remember in the creation story, after God created on each day, God looked at what he had made and said, "It is good." On the last day, when God created humans, God said, "It is very good"

When Jesus rose from the dead, he was not a ghost, not part of what he was before - it says so right here in the reading from Luke. Jesus had a form. It was not just his soul going to talk to the disciples.

II

Jesus had a bodily form. He appeared to disciples as a person, even though not recognized. He invites disciples to see the wounds on his hands and feet. He shows them he has form. The risen Christ is not a ghost or mirage. M. L. Engle tells the story about her young daughter who cried out in the night. She went to comfort her. On her first try she offered an idea that she was safe, "Don't be afraid, God will be with you." Her daughter, Madeleine, responded, "I know mommy, but I want somebody with skin on."

Luke makes clear that at his resurrection Jesus has skin on. After showing his disciples his hands and his feet, Jesus says, "Do you have anything else to eat here?" He has a fish dinner with them. Ghosts don't usually eat dinner. In Luke, Jesus doesn't just disappear; he comes back in body form.

III

But Jesus didn't have his earthly body. He didn't come back after the resurrection in the same form as before. When he comes to the disciples, they don't recognize him. They see a person, but they don't know it's him. Something about his appearance is different. Later, when Jesus meets with doubting Thomas, Jesus appears in a locked room. Suddenly Jesus is standing there among the disciples. Apparently his body doesn't have the form or limitations of an earthly body.

Conclusion

Jesus' resurrection is a promise for us too. Jesus offers us hope that the world and our lives have meaning. Jesus' resurrection also shows us that God wants us with him in some bodily form.

Carlos Carretto (whom I never heard of either) has written, "Jesus' resurrection makes it impossible for (our human) story to end in chaos - it has to move inexorably towards light, towards life, towards love." And, we might add, we move there is some kind of bodily form.

Jesus was raised in some recognizable form in some kind of body. Jesus resurrection tells about our own resurrections. We will be somehow identifiable, we will have form not entirely like our earthly form, but not completely different either.

God loves all of us - body and soul. Our selves are made up of our bodies, minds, and spirits. We can't be divided up without changing who we are.

So at the resurrection God raises us as whole people - our bodies, spirits, minds, hopes and histories. It isn't that one part of us is resurrected, and the rest dies; all of us is raised up. After death we will have some kind of body. God does not raise a part of us but all of us - our whole being. God saves us as whole persons, apparently that means we have a body of some kind.

That's what it means to say, "I believe in the resurrection of the body."

Amen.

©Richard J. Henderson 2003