Each week, I take some time to reflect on one of the lectionary passages for the upcoming Sunday. Sorry it is so late this week. I've had a bad case of writer's block which probably will bear itself out in this entry. This week for the third Sunday of Easter, we're going to look at the gospel reading: Luke 24:36-48.
This post-resurrection appearance is a quirky passage. At least that's how I read it. I think I find the passage quirky because the main point seems to be "The resurrected Jesus isn't a ghost." Luke goes to great pains to make this point. Jesus shows the disciples his scars. He asks for food and eats. Jesus even points that ghosts don't have flesh and bone. He does everything short of challenging Bill Murray and company to point their proton packs at him and give it their best shot.
It makes for an odd little scene, but there always seems to be an effort to turn Jesus into a ghost. Gnosticism, which arose in early Christianity, believed that our physical forms were corrupted and thus attested that throughout his time on earth Jesus was solely a spiritual being who merely appeared to have a body. Others have come along to say that Jesus never actually existed. While most historians would affirm that Jesus did walk the earth, a fair number would have (reasonable) problems with the resurrection. He was a great teacher, they would say, but the talk of a bodily resurrection are flights of fantasy.
As Christians today, I think we sometimes render the resurrection as a ghost story as well. It's not that people do not believe in the resurrection, but we overemphasize a spiritual resurrection of the dead and then put all our focus on the faith being about the afterlife. We neglect the fact that resurrection, for Jesus, actually meant continuing ministry on earth. After the resurrection, Jesus was not just a floating guy in a white robe in heaven. He still ate food. He still got dust on his feet. He still did amazing signs for his followers.
It reads a bit forced, but I think this (and other reasons) are why Luke asserted that Jesus did truly rise from the dead. It is not only a demonstration of God's power but it is a testimony to the ongoing missio dei represented by Jesus and then his followers and then us. As hard as it is to believe sometimes, the gospel is not just a ghost story or a fairy tale to give us warm fuzzies about what happens after we die. It is why generations of Christians have affirmed their belief in the resurrection in the creeds. Our God is not a ghost; a vague, floating, spiritual concept. God is something real and true.
