By Leon Bent –
The Christian Faith stands or falls with the truth of the testimony that, Christ is risen from the dead (cf.1 Cor.15:14-15).
The miracle of a resuscitated corpse would indicate that Jesus’ Resurrection was equivalent to the raising of the son of the widow of Nain (Lk.7:11-17), the daughter of Jairus (Mk.5:22-24; 35-43ff) and Lazarus (Jn.11:1-44). These people returned to their former lives and ultimately died definitively.
Jesus’ Resurrection was about breaking out into a new form of life that was no longer subject to the law of dying and becoming – a life that opens up a new dimension of human existence. In Jesus’ Resurrection a new possibility of human existence is attained that, affects everyone and opens up a new kind of future for mankind. Jesus has entered the vast realm of God himself, and it is from there that he reveals himself to his followers.
With an initial hesitation and astonishment, the apostles could no longer ignore the reality that it is truly Jesus. He is alive; he has spoken to us; he has allowed us to touch him, even if he no longer belongs to the realm of the tangible in the normal way. Jesus now lives anew and forever, in the power of God. This explains the unique character of the Resurrection accounts: they speak of something paradoxical, that surpasses all experience, and, yet, is utterly real and present.
The Resurrection accounts certainly speak of something outside our world of experience – a new dimension of reality is revealed. Is not creation actually waiting for this last and highest “evolutionary leap,” for the union of the finite with the infinite, for the union of man and God, for the conquest of death? In terms of world history, Jesus’ Resurrection is almost unbelievable, improbable; it is filled with mystery.
Paul attempts to enter this world of sheer silence: “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters[a] at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”
Jesus’ death is of another kind: it is occasioned, not by the presumption of men, but by the humility of God. Jesus’ death is rooted, not in the sentence of expulsion from Paradise, but in Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant Songs.” Jesus’ death achieves reconciliation and expiation – his death becomes a light for the nations.
The empty tomb does not prove the Resurrection. Mary Magdalene, in John’s account, found an empty tomb and assumed that someone must have taken Jesus’ body away. Hence, it is undeniable that the empty tomb is no proof of the Resurrection. In Paul’s confessional statement, it is not explicitly stated that the tomb was empty, but this is clearly presupposed. All four Gospels speak of it extensively in their Resurrection accounts.
For a theological understanding of the empty tomb, a passage from St. Peter’s Pentecost sermon strikes one as important, when Peter, for the first time, openly proclaims Jesus’ Resurrection to the assembled crowds. He communicates it, not in his own words, but by quoting Psalm 16:8-10. See Acts 2:26-28. Jesus rose according to the Scriptures, and Psalm 16 must have been seen as key scriptural evidence for the early Church. Here they found a clear statement that Christ, will not see bodily corruption, and that he must have truly risen.
Jesus’ resurrected Presence is entirely physical in his subsequent appearance, yet, he is not bound by physical laws of space and time. In this remarkable real physicality and the freedom from the constraints of the body, we see the special mysterious nature of the risen Lord’s new existence. Jesus is not as the disciples initially feared, a “ghost” or a “spirit”: He has “flesh and bones” (Lk.24:36-43). In his appearances to the apostles he asks for something to eat…has real fellowship…yet, it is only in the vanishing that he becomes truly recognizable. Jesus “appears to his disciples,” in the Acts of the Apostles, “speaks to them,” and sits at Table with them, in his Spirit-Body!”
The Risen Lord’s Table fellowship with his followers, is the New Covenant Fellowship that we now celebrate in the Eucharist every single day, worldwide!
Now, with Thomas, let us place our hands into Jesus’ pierced side and confess: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn.20:28).
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and has 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi.