Christ did truly rise again from the
dead, and took again his body, with all things appertaining to the perfection
of man's nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until he return
to judge all men at the last day.
Why should it
be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?--- Paul (Acts 26: 8)
Seriously. Why?
Christians
believe in God existing infinitely without beginning or end, in God creating
everything from nothing, in God enabling salvation for all people in all times
through the events of a single torturous day, in God knowing everything and
being everywhere all at the same time.
But some of
those same “Christians” think the Resurrection is too much to be taken
literally.
So God can
create a body and give it life, but He couldn’t put His life back into a body
He’d already created?
Really?
Even though
He’d done that kind of thing before?
You see, Jesus’
resurrection wasn’t the first.
When a
Zarephathan widow’s son died, the prophet Elijah brought the child back to life
(1 Kings 17:17-24). Elijah’s protégé,
Elisha, resurrected a Shunamite woman’s son when he died from an apparent brain
aneurism (2 Kings 4:20-37). In 2 Kings
13:21 a dead man revived when he was dropped on the bones in Elisha’s tomb.
During the 3 ½
years of His public ministry Jesus personally resurrected at least 3 dead
people, including one who’d been dead and buried for 4 days. (Luke 7:11-16; Mark
5:35-43; John 11:1-44)
Well before
that first Easter weekend, God had well established a record of physical resurrections.
Yet, In 1
Corinthian 15: 20, Paul called Jesus the
firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Colossians 1: 8 calls Him the firstborn
from among the dead.
Not ”first”
because resurrection had never happened before, but first because it had never
happened like this.
Jesus’
resurrection, The Resurrection, was unique and precedent setting.
No one prayed
over Jesus’ lifeless body. No one
touched His corpse, took His hand, or breathed onto His face. No one dropped Him onto the bones of a
prophet. No. His followers sealed Him in an empty, unused
tomb and left.
Jesus got up
from death all by Himself.
… I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of
Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. (John 10: 17, 18)
When He carried
our sins on the cross and the rest of the Trinity had to look away.
Now when the sixth hour had come, there
was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
And at the ninth hour Jesus
cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is
translated, “My God, My God, why have
You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15: 33,
34)
Jesus carried
our sins to His grave---- and left them there.
Having dealt
with sin, Jesus proceeded to kick Death’s butt.
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades,
where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15: 55-57)
The oneness
of the Trinity remained and Jesus rose in the fullness of glory.
I am
He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I
have the keys of Hades and of Death. (Revelations 1: 18)
Jesus’
resurrection wasn’t metaphorical or “spiritual.” He really came back in His real body. This point is so important that Jesus went
out of His physicality to the disciples.
In Luke 24:
36-43, Jesus appeared (like Bam!) to the disciples while they were hiding out
from the Jews. But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a
spirit.
Jesus wanted
them to know that He wasn’t just a spirit of Himself, He was really, really
Him.
So, He said to
them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My
hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does
not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
When He had
said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.
But while
they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you
any food here?”
So they
gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence.
Before Jesus,
all of the people who had come back from the dead later died again.
But Jesus ? Knowing that Christ, having been raised from
the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. (Romans 6:
9)
So, if we are
by faith joined to Jesus Christ, then we get to participate in the same unique resurrection
process.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe
that we shall also live with Him. (Romans 6: 8)
Peter called
Jesus the Author of life (Acts 3:
15). By His death and resurrection,
Jesus wrote us into His-story.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the
life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11: 25)
Like Jesus, our ultimate resurrection will
not simply be a rising of the soul; it will be a resurrection of the body.
Our corrupt forms will be raised in
incorruption.
Our dishonorable forms will be resurrected as
glorious.
Our weak flesh will rise in power.
This made-for-death natural body will be a
made-for-eternity, spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15: 42-44)
The
eaaarrrrly Sunday mo’nin’ testimony of the empty tomb is where our hope and faith
begin.
This is why with great power the apostles gave witness
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all
(Acts 4: 33)
Jesus really,
literally, physically died on the cross.
3 days and 3 nights later, Jesus really, literally, physically rose from
the dead. The 2nd person of
the Trinity, the Word of God, re-entered the mummy-wrapped body lying in
another man’s tomb. (Matthew 27: 57-60)
Approximately
33 years earlier, God formed an earthly body in Mary’s womb and made Himself
the life in that body. On Easter, God
redeemed the earthly body He had worn those 3+ decades and walked the world
again. This time, though the body was
perfect, like the original form made for Adam.
Resurrected
Jesus was the same Jesus who had walked and talked and eaten with his mother
and siblings and disciples. But, like
Adam in Genesis 1 & 2, Jesus’ post-Resurrection body was without any taint
of original sin or corruption. As Adam
and Eve could once walk safely in the direct, unfiltered presence of God
(Genesis 3: 8), so now Jesus ascended bodily into the throneroom of Heaven.
And because
He arose, if we have faith in Him, one day, we will, too.
Now that I
think about it, that IS pretty incredible. Better yet, it’s pretty AWESOME!
Anderson T. Graves II is a writer,
community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor
of Miles Chapel CME Church (5220 Myron Massey Boulevard) in
Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth
Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural
leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves
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