Resurrection of the Lord (Year A)
John 20.1-18 (TIB[1]; adapted):
Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance, 2so she ran off to Simon Peter and the other disciple — the one Jesus loved — and told them, “[Jesus] has been taken from the tomb! We don’t know where they’ve put [him]!”
3At that, Peter and the other disciple started out toward the tomb. 4They were running side by side, but then the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He didn’t enter, but bent down to peer in and saw the linen wrappings lying on the ground. 6Then Simon Peter arrived and entered the tomb. He observed the linen wrappings on the ground, 7and saw the piece of cloth that had covered Jesus’ head lying not with the wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the disciple who had arrived first at the tomb went in. He saw and believed. 9As yet, they didn’t understand the scripture that Jesus was to rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples went back to their homes.
11Meanwhile, Mary stood weeping beside the tomb. Even as she wept, she stooped to peer inside, 12and there she saw two angels in dazzling robes. One was seated at the head and the other at the foot of the place where Jesus’ body had lain. 13They asked her, “Why are you weeping?”
She answered them, “Because they’ve taken away my Rabbi, and I don’t know where they’ve put the body.”
14No sooner had she said this than she turned around and caught sight of Jesus standing there, but she didn’t know it was Jesus. 15He asked her, “Why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?”
She supposed he was the gardener, so she said, “Please, if you’re the one who carried Jesus away, tell me where you’ve laid the body and I’ll take it away.”
16Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned to him and said, “Rabboni!” — which means “Teacher”.
17Jesus then said, “Don’t hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to Abba God. Rather, go to the sisters and brothers and tell them, ‘I’m ascending to my Abba and to your Abba, my God and your God!’”
18Mary of Magdala went to the disciples. “I’ve seen the Teacher!” she announced. Then she reported what the savior had said to her.
Other readings:
The Gathering Prayer:
Glorious God of Life, we praise you, that by the mighty resurrection of your Only Begotten, you have delivered us from sin and death and made your whole creation new; grant that we who celebrate with joy Christ’s rising from the dead, may be raised from the death of sin to the life of righteousness; for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
The New Zealand Book of Common Prayer (adapted)
Indiana Jones was taken (kidnapped would be a better term) to the home of Walter Donovan. Donovan … uhh … invited Indy to help find the Holy Grail — “the chalice used by Christ during the Last Supper. The cup that caught his blood at the crucifixion and was entrusted to Joseph of Aramathea.” Donovan shows Indy a 12th century sandstone tablet describing in detail the final resting place of the Grail.
“What good is it?” Indy counters. “This Grail tablet speaks of deserts and mountains and canyons. It’s pretty vague. Where do you want to start looking? Maybe if the tablet was intact, you’d have something to go on, but the whole top portion is missing.”
Please forgive me for getting this out late. It’s taken me more time than it normally does with writing a reflection. My initial thoughts were a little, I don’t know, sharper than I wanted them to be. I had to rewrite them again and again and again.
That scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade comes to mind when I hear people speak about Easter. We hear happy proclamations of “new beginnings” or the “cycle / circle of life” with “birth, life, death, and rebirth.” We hear of dying and being born anew. We hear people say things like, “I know my loved one’s up in heaven and I’ll get to see them again.” And these are all fine, like a soothing balm, especially after the loss of a loved one.
But, if I’m honest, when I hear these statements I feel like Indy at the Grail tablet — they’re a little vague and something important is missing.
When I read the story about Jesus’ resurrection, especially John’s version (although, they all make the same point in different ways), I get the sense of something tangible, something concrete. When I hear people tell stories about Easter, they’re more metaphorical. Is the Resurrection of Jesus just another way of pointing to the cycle of life — of dying and new life — like what we witness each Spring when our deciduous plants start sprouting new foliage?
Simply put, “No.”
The Resurrection of Jesus is different from that of the daughter of Jarius or Lazarus. Their resurrections could be metaphors; both died and both were raised to continue their lives only to die again — death, “rebirth,” and death again, much like deciduous plants (although, technically, the plants only appear dead whereas the daughter of Jarius and Lazarus were actually dead).
But Jesus’ death and resurrection is quite different. When Jesus died physically, he died completely. That is, the life he had ended, never to be again. But when he was resurrected, while it seemed like the same life, i.e., he was raised in the same physical body, it was markedly different.
What was that?
I know. I know.
In this day and age, people aren’t supposed to believe in the physical resurrection. We’re all supposed to “realize” that this is only a story, a way of telling us something (although, to be honest, I don’t really know what that “something” is supposed to be). But if we misunderstand the nature of the resurrection (physical versus whatever else) then we miss a very important point God was making — the ultimate goodness of the material creation.
So often I hear people complain about the material world — that it’s some sort of prison keeping the “real” us trapped on this mortal plane. There are a couple of things wrong with this, at least from my understanding of The Way of Jesus.
First is the account in Genesis. In Genesis 1 we read, “God looked at all of this creation, and proclaimed that it was good — very good” (verse 31). The material creation is not a prison. It’s the proper place for God’s “very good” creations to live and thrive.
Second, for me, is the Incarnation. Creation is so “very good” that God becomes human and lives within the material world!
Finally, the resurrection of Jesus appears in the material world but not with just the same physical body as he had before (like the daughter of Jarius). No. Like Jesus’ story about the grain of wheat (John 12.24), his body is made from the old one but it’s been changed. Like everything with God, the resurrected body of Jesus is not less than material — i.e., non-material, non-physical — it’s actually more than material. Tom Wright describes it as “transphysical.” In his book, The Resurrection of the Son of God, Wright stated —
The ‘trans’ is intended as a shortening of ‘transformed’. ‘Transphysical’ is not meant to describe in detail what sort of a body it was that the early Christians supposed Jesus already had, and believed that they themselves would eventually have. Nor indeed does it claim to explain how such a thing can come to be. It merely, but I hope usefully, puts a label on the demonstrable fact that the early Christians envisaged a body which was still robustly physical but also significantly different from the present one. If anything — since the main difference they seem to have envisaged is that the new body will not be corruptible — we might say not that it will be less physical, as though it were some kind of ghost or apparition, but more. ‘Not unclothed, but more fully clothed.’[2]
So what does this mean? For me, it means that there is nothing in the natural world that is a one-to-one equivalent to the resurrection of Jesus. While a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly is probably the closest we can ever get, it still falls short in that the caterpillar never truly dies.[3]
In other words, our stories about dying and rebirth are actually metaphors of Jesus’ resurrection — not the other way around. And it’s that bit that we need to cling to, especially in these “unprecedented times.”
Jesus’ resurrected body — transphysical, more than a normal, human, physical existence — is what gives us hope for the future of our world. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s promise that the world will be transformed; made into a world habitable for more-than-physical existence. As we see in Revelation 21, God’s realm comes down to our realm once everything has been transformed —
Revelation 21.1-5 (TIB):
Then I saw new heavens and a new earth. The former heavens and the former earth had passed away, and the sea existed no longer. 2I also saw a new Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God, beautiful as a bride and groom on their wedding day.
3And I heard a loud voice calling from the throne, “Look! God’s Tabernacle is among humankind! God will live with them; they will be God’s people, and God will be fully present among them. 4The Most High will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death, mourning, crying and pain will be no more, for the old order has fallen.”
5The One who sat on the throne said, “Look! I’m making everything new!” and added, “Write this, for what I am saying is trustworthy and true.”
Just like Jesus’ body was made in a new way (transformed) so, too, will be all creation. Notice it says God is “making everything new,” and not making new things. That’s the key to transformation. God takes the things that are, removes any pieces of death still trapped within, and transforms them into what they were always intended to be.
What would it mean for you to shift your thinking from seeing the “spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15.44) as a non-corporal, ghostly body into a “transphysical” (much, much more than) body? What would it mean for you to shift your thinking into seeing that’s God’s purpose for all creation?
~~~
In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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[1] Scripture quotations marked (TIB) are taken from The Inclusive Bible. Copyright © 2007 by Priests for Equality. Used by permission.
[2] Wright, N.T., (2003). The Resurrection of the Son of God [Kindle version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com.
[3] For those of us who don’t know, a caterpillar actually digests itself, releasing enzymes to dissolve most of its tissues. But not entirely. What remains are “imaginal discs for each … adult body part.” See here for more insight.
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