The banner photo is of my wife Abbey standing in front of a cross that commemorates the 600 plus bodies buried below, people found abandoned to die from heat and dehydration in dungeons where they were held at the end of the occupation of the Philippines.
Provocative Thoughts on the Resurrection with Comments
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God never loses us; the theological theme of life everlasting is found throughout scripture.
Sarah’s post-menopausal condition is to be reversed and she laughs at the undoing of death in her body, at the prospect of her breasts perking up to nurse a child. Perhaps she and the theophanic messenger were laughing together?
The suspension of biological decay in the manna is a sign of God’s power to halt the decay of time.
The virgin birth is theologically affirmed in these events as the ongoing revelation of God, who as the creator of life is not dependent upon humanity to multiply us. Jesus’ cousin John (knowing the story of Jesus’ birth) realized God could create children of Abraham from stones, though Abraham died long ago.
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Jesus’ resurrection is the event that rises over the cross to declare God has definitively spoken to us through the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.
The cross is the apex of God’s self-revelation in Jesus. The resurrection is beyond our observable and known reality, it embodies God’s final word on our existence.
The resurrection is essential for understanding how (the son of man) Jesus can be the object of faith that leads us to our ineffable God who transcends all that we know.
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The resurrection of Christ is the gospel’s defining event that establishes the claim of Christ’s incarnation and affirms the love of God’s instructive refusal to use violence to escape the cross.
Refusing the resurrection as part of the gospel, as part of God’s revelation story, results in a religion that devolves into humanism. It is to miss the voice of the Spirit’s testimony in the present.
Jesus’ testimony in the gospels is that his resurrection was a certainty, he never waivers in this assertion.
Death entered the world in a garden. Jesus left us an empty tomb. Death is certain, but God never loses us, no not one of us.
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In Jesus’ thought and heart his resurrection was certain.
In the garden Jesus’ fear of torture reveals his sanity. A sane person fears torture.
In his body his sweat became bloodied as his flesh fought for survival.
As the Lord of heaven and earth he stretched out his arms to embrace all of humanity; declaring to God his father that we did not grasp the truth of either ourselves or of Immanuel.
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They saw him resurrected but did not recognize him.
They saw him resurrected but doubted.
Yet, Jesus commissioned them.
They were given the Spirit that raised Jesus and they gave their lives.
We are given that same Spirit.
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Resurrection transcends our reality, our understanding; it is a matter of faith. For this reason, even Jesus’ disciples struggle with accepting Jesus’ resurrection. Belief in the resurrection requires (in the hearer) the testimony of the Spirit accompanying the good news of the coming of God in Jesus Christ the Lord. The experience of the living Christ through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our minds, our souls, is the power that heals us on our journey to becoming the children of God. Recognizing the presence of the Spirit is to embrace those moments when our body feels ignited with something other than ourselves. You cannot believe in the resurrection without the Spirit.
II Corinthians 1:20-22
For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason, it is through him that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God. But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first installment.
We were created with a sense of forever, or past and future. It is this awareness of a possibility for more life that prohibits us from accepting death without enduring some fear, some anger, even rage against this horrid reality of death. The divine in us (image of God) is incompatible with death’s seeming finality.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
To know Christ Jesus is to be a recipient of the Spirit. The Spirit and our spiritual intelligence or maturity, equip us to face death without fear.
Hebrews 2:15
And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Once a person has grasped and understands the vision of Jesus for humanity (the Kingdom of God) feat of death vanishes as they learn to trust God for their souls. Further, in his grace the Lord longs to be with us when our end comes, so we can call on the Lord for he is near those who are dying.
A Personal Story
My earliest memory is also my first encounter with trauma. I’m not sure of my age, possibly it was before I began kindergarten at four. My father had pulled a dead animal out from under the house we were living in. I know my reflection on the moment is articulated beyond my capability as a young child. However, it left me with a sense of loss to realize that this wonderful life I had entered was to be interrupted by this ugly power called death. I wondered why, for I had only just arrived.
God’s Enemy
1st Corinthians 15:24-26
Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
I’m happy to know that God’s feelings about death are like mine. Death is an enemy to be destroyed. God wins.
