Our Living Hope
A letter in the Daily Telegraph a few years back recorded a conversation in Merseyside, where a Christian gave a copy of their church magazine to a parishioner. ‘Fancy that, St. Andrew’s,’ said the man, ‘Haven’t been there for years.’ ‘Why not come along at Easter?’ asked the distributor. ‘You’ll be very welcome.’ ‘Easter?’ came the reply. ‘Why, is there something special on?’
I wonder what you would have replied? Why is the message of Easter special? What difference does the resurrection of Jesus make?
Clearly the message was considered central to the writers of the New Testament. It is mentioned in every sermon recorded in Acts – even more frequently than the cross. Paul speaks about it so much in Athens (Acts 17:19) that people think that he is promoting two new Gods called Jesus and ‘Anastasis’ (the Greek for ‘resurrection’).
There is a great deal we could look at, but I want to focus on the difference Easter makes to our vision of the future. What is the Christian vision of the future? I guess that many people would answer ‘Heaven’. But the Bible’s one-word answer to the question is ‘Resurrection’. And it’s bodies that are resurrected.
Heaven is only the intermediate state. It’s where our souls go temporarily when we leave our bodies behind at death. If heaven was the fullness of the Christian hope, then Jesus already experienced it between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, in ‘Paradise’, while his body was left in the tomb. But what are the Christians in heaven waiting for? The resurrection of their bodies! In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul says that being in heaven is rather like being naked – we can’t wait to be re-clothed with our glorified, resurrection bodies. And when Paul summarises our hope, he is startlingly physical:
We ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. [Romans 8:23].
The New Testament is far more interested in our bodies than many of us are. We have been infected with a suspicion of the physical stemming back to the ancient Greeks. But the place to rediscover the importance of the physical is the resurrection of Jesus.
But doesn’t Paul say that we will have a ‘spiritual body’ in 1 Corinthians 15:44? Yes he does, but by ‘spiritual’ he doesn’t mean ‘non-physical’, but ‘responsive to the Spirit’. So, for example, in Ephesians 5:19 he says we should sing spiritual songs, which doesn’t mean songs without words or music!
Another reason we may go wrong here are some common misconceptions about the nature of Jesus’ resurrection body. Wasn’t Jesus’ resurrection body very different, since his friends didn’t recognise him on the road to Emmaus, and he could pass through walls into locked rooms? But Luke is explicit that the friends were prevented by God from recognising Jesus [Luke 24:19], and John nowhere says that Jesus passed through the walls like some sort of ghost. And if he did pass through the walls, then C.S. Lewis’ speculation is closer to the point when he suggests that it was because Jesus was now more solid than the walls.
In fact Jesus goes out of his way to show how physical his resurrection body was. He even eats a fish supper.
Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence. [Luke 24:39-43].
Another vital piece of evidence for the bodily resurrection is the empty tomb. Christians often argue that the empty tomb proves Jesus is alive. But of course everyone, including Jesus, experiences life after death while their bodies remain on earth. The empty tomb proves something much more specific than this – it shows that Jesus’ body has been raised. It was the same body that went into the tomb that came out of it.
And this takes us to the heart of Easter, and its implications for us. His glorified body is our template – our bodies will be resurrected to be like his.
And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. [1 Corinthians 15:49].
And, he is,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. [1 Corinthians 15:20].
And as well as being the forerunner of own bodily resurrection, he is also the start and the heart of the New Creation.
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! [2 Cor 5:17].
And so the whole created order will be made new – not in the sense of starting again, but, following the pattern of Jesus’ resurrected body, being gloriously renewed. The earth was designed as God’s environment for people with bodies – and a renewed earth will remain the eternal environment for people with renewed bodies, including Jesus, who will return to take up permanent residence here. And the resurrection of Jesus’ body is the guarantee of this total transformation. With Easter, the new age has begun.
And this is very good news indeed. We could spend a long time beginning to spell out the implications of the resurrection for our attitude to creation. But perhaps the word which is most associated with the resurrection is ‘hope’. So Peter writes,
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead… [1 Pet 1:3].
Humanly speaking our futures will be very varied. I wonder how you would assess your prospects? But Peter says that every Christian has a glorious future: a future in the new creation clothed in resurrection bodies.
I’d like to end with a story told by Tony Campolo. He went to Mount Carmel Baptist Church, a black church in Philadelphia, where the elderly preacher got up to preach. And he preached for an hour and a half, repeating a single line again and again: “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!” It’s (Good) Friday – we continue to live in the pain and darkness of a fallen world. But (Easter) Sunday’s coming – when we will share in the glorious resurrection of Jesus, and our bodies, and the whole cosmos will be renewed. This is what Peter calls our ‘living hope’.
‘Easter? Why, is there something special on?’ What would you reply?
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