The Resurrection of the Body
Easter Year C 2019: Washed for Resurrection • Sermon • Submitted
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· 2 viewsThe manner of Jesus resurrection is essential to understanding what God has done for us in Jesus Christ and the future destiny assured us in our Baptism.
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Introduction to the series (recap)
For the season of Easter, we are exploring what it means to say that in Baptism we are buried and raised to new life in Jesus; that in Baptism we are united to Christ in his death and in his resurrection
As we celebrate and give thanks for our Baptism, we are also seeking a deeper understanding of what it means to say “I am Baptized.”
We began this series began on Easter Sunday by looking at what Paul has to say about Baptism in Romans chapter six
Last week we looked at the first chapter of Revelation and discussed what it means to say that Jesus is “Firstborn of the dead.”
Today we continue the series by examining the idea of the “resurrection of the body”
I believe the claim that in Baptism we are united to Christ in his death and in his resurrection has deep and important implications for the Christian faith and way of living
As Christians we have a few bedrock beliefs:
That God is the creator of all that is, both seen and unseen;
That Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Mary; and is therefore truly God and truly human—that he was born of flesh and blood for our salvation; taking on our nature in order to redeem it;
That Jesus was crucified, died, was buried, descended to the dead and was raised to life again in his body;
That Jesus ascended—in his body—to the right hand of the Father (more on this later in the season/series); and will return in the same way;
That Jesus sent the Holy Spirt as his own personal, living presence to fill individual Christians, and indeed the whole Church with power to proclaim and demonstrate the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven;
That we are Baptized for the forgiveness of our sins; and
That our future hope is in the resurrection of our bodies—Just like Jesus!
Its this incarnational, fleshy faith that is so unique and so uniquely important in Christianity
We have an embodied faith
Jesus is a real human being; he isn’t a spirit that just looks human
He had a real human birth, lived a real human life, and died a real human death
Christians believe that Jesus had to become human in order to redeem humanity; that the only way Jesus could save us was to become one of us
Central to our faith is that Jesus shared every particle of our human nature, except for sin, so that he might destroy sin; and ...
That Jesus suffered death in the flesh in order to defeat death and open the way to everlasting life;
Cyril of Alexandria:
We Believe in One Lord Jesus Christ Why Did God Become Human?
He even endured the cross so that by suffering death in the flesh (though not in the nature of the Godhead) he might become the “firstborn from the dead.” He opened up the way for human nature to incorruption and despoiled hell, taking pity on the souls who were imprisoned there.
We Believe in One Lord Jesus Christ Why Did God Become Human?
From the time that human flesh became the personal flesh of the Word it has ceased to be subject to corruption, and since he who dwelled within it and revealed it as his very own, knew no sin being God, as I have already said, it has also ceased to be sick with its desires.
And that, most importantly, Jesus was raised to life again in the flesh
The post-resurrection appearance stories that we have in the Gospels very much emphasize that the resurrected Christ is embodied
After his resurrection, Jesus appears to his disciples in various ways, at various locations;
But in all of the appearances, one thing is certain, this is a human, flesh-bound man encountering the disciples, not a ghost
Remember last week’s Gospel lesson: Jesus appears to his disciples and shows him his hands and side;
When Thomas demands the proof of Jesus’ wounds, Jesus tells Thomas to touch him, to handle him to receive the evidential proof he needs
Now in this week’s appearance story, Jesus is having breakfast, and invites the disciples to join him
In Luke’s Gospel we get more of these stories: Jesus encounters two disciples on the road to Emmaus and hosts a meal in which the disciples finally recognize him when he breaks the bread
Later in Luke chapter 24, Jesus has a meal with other of his disciples and enjoys some broiled fish
Now, to be sure, the body of the resurrected Jesus is different from his pre-crucifixion body
It is now wounded; Jesus bears the marks of his death even in his glorified body
It is no longer bound by the laws of physics
The resurrected Jesus is able to “teleport” from one place to another; in the Luke “Emmaus” story, Jesus disappears from the table at Emmaus and then appears out of nowhere in Jerusalem as these same two men are telling their story to the other disciples
In the stories we read in John’s gospel last week and this week, Jesus is completely uninhibited by locked doors to upper rooms
The resurrected Jesus seems to move without any trouble between the earthly and heavenly realms
In a few weeks we will celebrate Ascension Day, in which Jesus walks through the veil of heaven to take his place at the right hand of God the Father
And yet, this resurrected body of Jesus is still a human body
He walks and talks and can be embraced by his disciples
He even eats (hosting meals just like he as always done)
The resurrected Jesus is the same and different; something (everything) has changed; because Jesus has passed over from death into life
And this is the foretaste of the resurrection life we are to inherit
Our future is not an ethereal, disembodied existence in a purely spiritual plane
Our future is not clouds, harps, and halos
The resurrection future we are looking forward to, that we confess in our faith, is an embodied, fleshy future;
We are not spirits temporarily trapped in the material world; we are beloved creatures made in the image of God for existence in a physical creation as physical beings
As the great Swiss theologian Karl Barth has said, the future of creation is not death, it is resurrection
Our resurrection future is one that is embodied in the same way the resurrected Jesus is embodied; we will trade our corruptible bodies for incorruptibility—the bodies that we have now, prone as they are to sickness and frailty, will be made new …
And creation itself will be made new … and will be fully enveloped by heaven; no more separation will exist between the heavenly and earthly planes … but I’m getting ahead of myself …
Jesus has made this future possible by his death and resurrection
This is the future we are baptized in anticipation of;
We are washed for resurrection
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