Still Easter 1: The Resurrection Body

There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body.   ~ 1 Corinthians 15:41-44a

... and [Mary Magdalene] saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”   ~ John 20:12-17

A few years ago, I started hearing about Zombie Jesus. I wondered what on earth that could mean, as the Zombie appeared to be everywhere already-- TV, movies, video games. But this idea and image started popping up on social media, and I have to admit, I just kind of snorted and looked the other way. 

But eventually, I had to have a closer look, and in order to understand what Zombie Jesus is about, all you have to do is do a Google image search with those words. 

(If you've never done this before, go ahead, I'll wait.)

See what I'm talking about? I think the Zombie Jesus phenomenon is nicely captured in this image and text.

Yeah, that sounds nuts.

And if this were my understanding of resurrection-- that Jesus was basically resuscitated and then the once-dead corpse taken bodily into heaven-- I am pretty sure I wouldn't be doing what I do for a living. This is the fundamental misunderstanding that lays the groundwork for this understanding of faith. People think resurrection = resuscitation.

Nope.

Resurrection sure looks like resuscitation in some of the appearances of Jesus. (I'm looking at you, this Sunday's gospel lesson (John 20:19-31), in which Jesus shows his disciples his hands and side as proof that it is he, truly, who stands before them...)

... But wait: How did he get into the room again? Oh yeah. He appeared, despite the locked doors and all. Hmm.

Earlier in that same chapter, we have Mary Magdalene's encounter with Jesus, and notice, she doesn't recognize him at first. (Not recognizing Jesus happens a couple of times, actually.) And then, apparently, Mary tries to embrace Jesus, to which he replies...

Nope.

The gospels seem to be telling us something about the resurrection body: It is not the same as the physical body. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul states this pretty emphatically. There are different kinds of glory, be begins, and notes: what is sown, the seed, is perishable... but not what is raised. Or, who is raised.

Jesus is appearing to people, and maybe also doing things that seem very body-based, such as eating with them. But he is also appearing out of thin air, leaving the same way, and establishing boundaries around his body that seem like new rules to his friends. His body seems continuous with the body he had as he walked the hills of Galilee and the streets of Jerusalem-- eating, wounds-- but also, discontinous with it. Changed. More, Paul suggests, glorious.

If I had to summarize my faith (in contrast to what you can find on the Zombie poster above), I might say something like:

I trust in Jesus as a window through which I can see some of what God is. He was a Palestinian Jew who taught, healed, and offered an unconditional welcome to all kinds of people; he also was tortured and killed by the state because he was seen as a threat to Roman sovereignty. And afterwards, his followers experienced him as alive again-- raised from the dead-- for a limited time (between 40-50 days, or thereabouts). After that, they found themselves empowered to take on his ministry, and did so, and that's why I know about him. I have been invited into his community through baptism, I confirmed those promises for myself in young adulthood, and I believe that Jesus' way is the best way: a way of love, healing, welcome, and table fellowship that includes feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, welcoming the immigrant, remembering and affirming the humanity of all, including those society casts away, such as prisoners and the poor. I think this way of living is at least partly what he meant by "eternal" life-- that's not something for later, it's something for now.

It's not about resuscitation. It's about glorious life.