4-13-21 - No Bones About It

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Who could blame those poor disciples for thinking they were witnessing an apparition? Who has the context to correctly interpret data like someone who's died suddenly materializing in a room! Well, I suppose, on this side of Star Trek, maybe we can imagine it a little... Not so Jesus’ disciples: They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

The early church and the gospel writers had to overcome a lot of misinformation from critics, much of it around the issue of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Many found it unthinkable that a holy person or spiritual master could be put to death, especially in as gruesome and humiliating a way as crucifixion. People argued that simply could not have happened. Others claimed that if Jesus was divine, he must only have appeared to die, not actually done so.

And rising from the dead? We can find rumors and conspiracy theories in the very pages of the New Testament. Jesus wasn’t really dead. The body was stolen and hidden away. Someone who looked like him was making these appearances (someone so committed to this deception they had wounds in their hands, feet and side?) And the least far-fetched theory: that Jesus’ ghost was about on the earth.

As Luke tells it, Jesus is swift to dispel that theory.
He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

Here was unassailable proof for those who would be called to offer testimony to Jesus resurrection life. “A ghost does not have flesh and bones.”
A ghost does not eat, either – which Jesus did next:
While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

I feel that someone who’s been to hell and back, literally, deserves a little better than broiled fish, but I guess that’s not the point. What counts is that, in many ways, Jesus’ resurrection body looked and acted a lot like his pre-resurrection body. And in other ways, not at all.

What difference does this make for us? It matters that we proclaim a Lord who rose from the dead, not a ghost, not a zombie. We proclaim a Lord thoroughly, thrillingly alive.

There are people who traffic in the spirits of people who have died; that realm seems undeniably real. And Christians are explicitly told not to put our spiritual energy into that realm, or to open our spirits to it. We worship the Risen Christ whose Holy Spirit moves with us, inspires us, comforts us, and leads us into ministry in which others are transformed. As the angel said to the women at the tomb on Easter morning, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, he is risen!"

Deny the resurrection if you will, but don’t claim the risen Jesus was “just a ghost.” He was and is the Lord of heaven and earth. Let's make no bones about that.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are here.  Water Daily is now a podcast! Look for it wherever you get your podcasts, and please subscribe.