I am the resurrection...

I have been to Israel twice and both times I had the opportunity to walk the Palm Sunday road. It is currently paved and has street signs that don't date to Jesus time :-), but based on ancient maps of the city of Jerusalem is believed to be over the very road that Jesus walked as he entered the city for the last time on Palm Sunday. It comes down the Mount of Olives which is just to the East of the city. As you walk down the road toward Jerusalem, on you right is the Garden of Gethsemane. It currently has a church on it, but in front of the church are olive trees that date back, if not to Jesus time, they would have been planted with seeds from those trees. On the left hand side of the road, is the world's largest Jewish cemetery.

Why would the world's largest Jewish cemetery be just to the east of Jerusalem? Well, remember that modern Judaism is still waiting for the arrival of Messiah. They believe that he will enter the city triumphantly from the east, coming down off the Mount of Olives and he will resurrect faithful Jews as he comes to establish his kingdom. So their desire is to be buried as close to the eastern gate of the city so that they can be one of the first in line to enter with him.

In the Jewish mind, both in Jesus' day and today, the resurrection of the body was something that was to be looked forward to. It was often used as an encouragement in the midst of persecution - "We may not see justice today, but someday we will have a resurrection to glory, and they will not!" I'm afraid that for our modern western minds, where death is avoided at all cost, and dead things are not talked about much, that the idea of a bodily resurrection sounds a little odd, and maybe not as encouraging as it once was. In fact, I think we have a little bit of gnostic theology that has crept in that says our bodies are really shells that hold sin and disease and all things evil and that what we look forward to is being delivered from our bodies.

So when Jesus says that he is the "resurrection and the life" it maybe does not resonate for us in quite the same way that it did when Jesus said it or John wrote it so many years ago. That doesn't make it any less true, but means that we may have to work a little harder to see or feel the impact that Jesus intends.

Paul said:

"And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?" Rom 8:23-24


"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." Phil 3:20-21


What Paul seems to be saying, among other things, is just like adoption as sons, the completed work of Christ secures for us the redemption of our bodies, and this is something we wait and long for.

What are these bodies going to be like? We know they will be redeemed or perfected. Sin and death and sickness and pain (and maybe extra weight and baldness) will be gone. They will be recognizably human though, as Jesus appeared after his resurrection, in his new body, people were slow to recognize him as Jesus, but they responded to him normally as a person, not as some kind of spirit or ghost or alien. He even had the marks of his crucifixion still on his hands and his side for Thomas to touch. One of the last things that Jesus does is have breakfast on the beach with his disciples implying that in his resurrected form Jesus may have still eaten.

"Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality." 1 Cor 15:51-53

So let me try to state briefly our understanding of death and the major events that happen, and then a couple of thoughts about the implications of that for our lives today. We believe that at our death, the spirits of Christ followers, that have been made alive with Christ will separate from our bodies and be immediately ushered into the presence of God -- heaven (for those who are not Christ followers, their spirits will also depart from their body, for a different destination). Jesus said to the faithful thief on the cross: "Today, you will be with me in paradise." What does a spirit without a body look like? I have no idea, but I think there is a sense that it is incomplete, and that without a body fully worshiping God won't be possible - maybe no raising of hands or shouting or crying. So our spirits while in heaven with God, await a reunion with their bodies. This will happen at Jesus return (see 1 Cor verses above). Our bodies will be reunited again with our spirits now in a fully redeemed way, and we will be capable of fully worshiping God.

"I am the resurrection and the life!" Jesus came not only to secure for us life, presence with him - both here and to come, but came also to redeem our bodies, that we might be able to fully experience the presence of God!

So a couple of observations:
*Christ came to redeem not just our spirits, but our bodies as well
*Our bodies then, our flesh and bones, are not inherently evil, but inherently good though completely tarnished by sin, but redeemable by the work of Christ.
*If we are to experience a future complete redemption, then there may be some partial experience of that future promise now - maybe some healing, or deliverance from physical sin is possible as a partial fulfillment of a future promise.
*Whenever I think of these things, it convicts me that if Christ gave himself to redeem also my body, and that if I am going to be reunited with this body (in a much improved form) for all of eternity, should I not be a good steward of this body now?!
*There will be some familiarity in heaven. We will, after his second coming, have bodies that while different, will be recognizable as us and as human beings.
*God who created me in the first place, will be able to re-create me (and all who are dead in him), regardless of where or what condition our bodies are in. Whether I am dust or ashes or missing, or at the bottom of the sea, God's resurrection of my body can not be thwarted!

Jesus, John, Paul and others saw the hope of a future resurrection as something to be "eagerly awaited." Our western minds don't like to think about dying or death much, but Jesus words should give us hope. Hope for ourselves, and hope for friends and family who have gone before us in death.

Read some of these other passages regarding the hope of a resurrection:
*1 Thess 4:14-17
*Rom 8:11
*John 6:39-40
*1 Cor 15:49
*Is 26:9
*Dan 12:2

Think on these things and let me know what other thoughts come to mind.

Pastor Derrick