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| This oak has seen and will see many human generations. Use such images as a reminder that Jesus lived, and will live, for ever. |
“My belief has
come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have
known…friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in the light of
the Resurrection story, or in the quiet acceptance that they have a future when
they die.”1 The writer A.N.Wilson has long had an on-off
relationship with Christianity and his theology is hardly orthodox (he has just
written a strange book on the Bible), but his experience highlights a truth
that will not go away: Jesus lives.
This section of
the creed is like a cereal variety pack; three different ideas united in a
single brand: Jesus is alive and active for ever. The resurrection is the core
of practical Christian faith. “If Christ is not raised, your faith is futile,”
wrote St Paul (1 Corinthians 15:17). It reminds us we are not alone in the
universe and it gives us hope for the future.
If Jesus was
God in human form, the creator and sustainer of all life, then almost by
definition he had to defeat death. God is the author of life; “he gives all
people life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25). Whatever human beings
did to his incarnate body, they could not destroy the (in his case) immortal
spirit that animated it. His resurrection was even hinted at in the scriptures
which his disciples at the time didn’t understand, and he told them often
enough that it would happen (e.g. Matthew 16:21; they didn’t understand or,
frankly, believe that, either).
The nature of his
risen body is unclear and there have been many suggestions as to what happened
to his bones. Interestingly, his tomb never became a place of pilgrimage as
happened with saints in later years; everyone at the time knew that the body
really had gone. St Paul directly addresses the question, “How are the dead
raised?” by suggesting that there are different kinds of “body”. The physical
body, he suggests, is transformed into something different and imperishable.
In our age it
isn’t so hard to understand as it might have been in the past. We know that matter
cannot be destroyed but only transformed – burn something, and you turn it into
energy; all the atoms that exist today existed when the earth was formed. They are
just recycled into different shapes. And now quantum physicists exploring “dark
matter” and sub-atomic particles have shown that what we think of as solid
matter is a much looser collection of spinning atoms than hitting one’s head
against a brick wall might suggest. There really are different kinds of “matter”.
So the possibility that someone could be transformed into something which
behaves differently to common matter (like suddenly appearing in a closed room)
yet be physically visible is perfectly plausible.
Jesus’ final resurrection
appearance was the “ascension”. It was a visual demonstration to the disciples that
from then on Jesus would be universally available; wherever they were, he would
be too. It wasn’t so much that he went “up”, as the stained glass windows love
to depict, but that he went away, beyond space and time. (Going up in the world
is, of course, a common idiom for going to a better place or role, and the idea
was current in ancient times as well as modern.)
It also signalled
the resumption of his role “at the right hand of the Father”, the place of
authority over all creation. Jesus is (and always was) Lord, before whom all
creation shall bow in homage and service. One day, we’ll have no choice but to
do so when he “comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead”.
That will be
the end of the world as we know it. And end it must, as physicists tell us,
whether with a bang or a whimper. Their projected timescale is millions of
years but ignores the possibility of sudden catastrophe. God’s timetable is
unknown and Jesus ruled out any kind of speculation (see Matthew 24:36)
although sadly that hasn’t deterred some Christians from speculating to the
point of causing major church divisions. In any case, we don’t know when our
personal residence on earth will end, as accident and disease as well as old
age take their toll. But with our death the opportunity to encounter the living
Christ on earth also ceases. What happens after that is covered in a later
clause of the creed.
Meanwhile, a
person’s relationship with the risen Christ on earth can be a foretaste of the
future experience of eternity, and therefore well worth working at and
developing (see John 10:10). Jesus is for life, not just for Christmas and
funerals.
Think and talk
1. Look up and meditate on the verses quoted above.
What can you learn about the nature of life from them?
2. Jesus has
promised to be with us for ever For what purpose? Matthew 28:20; John 14:18-19;
Hebrews 4:14-16, 7:25, 13:8. How does that make you feel?
3. What
difference should his constant presence make to the way I conduct myself each
day?
Reference
1. Quoted by Alison Morgan, The Word on the wind, Monarch 2011, p.102.© Derek Williams 2015
The material in these posts may be
freely reproduced for private and small group study, with due acknowledgement.
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