The bodily resurrection
Graham Leonard
The story of the Resurrection as re- counted in the Scriptures is essentially a very simple one. On Friday afternoon Jesus of Nazareth hung dead upon the cross on the little hill outside the wall of Jerusalem. His body was laid in a tomb sealed with a stone and guarded by Roman soldiers. On Sunday morning the tomb was found to be empty. Jesus, the crucified, then showed himself at various times and in various places to the disciples, the same disciples who except for Mary, his Mother, and St John, had deserted him when he was con- demned to death. He showed himself to them in ways which made it clear that he was no ghost or apparition. Nor had he merely been resuscitated like Lazarus, to resume his former life and to face death again. He had not left his body behind as of no account and to be discarded. He ate and drank before them. He showed them' the marks of the nails and the spear in his body. Yet that same body was now freed to be wholly at the disposal of his Spirit. It transcended space and time and no longer restricted him. But there was clearly a con- tinuity between the physical Person whom
they had known and had seen hanging upon the cross and the risen Lord whom they now saw and to whom they listened.
The purpose of his appearances was not limited to demonstrating that he was alive. He came to fulfil certain promises which he had made during his earthly life, promises which his death and resurrection had made possible of fulfilment. He forgave the disciples, not least Peter, who had denied him. He gave them peace. Above all, he gave them his Spirit and commanded them to continue his work in his name and power, while sharing his new and risen life.
The words which he used to describe the gift of his Spirit are reminiscent of the words from Genesis which speak of the creation of Man. 'He breathed on them say- ing "Receive ye the Holy Spirit" ', recalls the words: 'The Lord God formed man of- dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.'
For there are two creations. The first is that of the natural world; of that world man is part and sustained by it. The second is the new creation in Christ, who shared
the first that he might establish the second. How are the two related? Let it first be said that the second does not destroy or denY the first. The natural world does not contain Christ's world,
but his world embrac ours. es
Of that relationship our world gives in- timations. The Lord himself speaks of the way in which a seed of corn must die if it is to be changed into the plant of wheat, to bear fruit and be brought to fulfilment- Theologians and poets have turned to the transformation of the chrysalis into a but- terfly or the larva to a dragonfly as signs (1,1 a death to rise in glory. Marvellous thong," such changes are, such that we are tempted to use the world miraculous, miracles they are not. They are but the expression in our natural world of the energies of God who directs and sustains its life. When the Creator himself, the Word made flesh, takes our human life, 1300.' mind and spirit through death, giving It back in perfect trust to the Father from whom it comes and to whom it belongs, is raised up from the eacIdeisd by the ‘Chrisof the glorY the Father' and in Christ our human naturei is glorified in union with the life of God. Al, that was necessary for Christ to be tril.?; man became transparent to the divine vvi and glory. When St Paul says: 'As in Adar all die, even so in Christ shall all be lnaue alive', he is speaking not merely of the sharing of Christ in our humanity. He speaking of Christ as inaugurating the ,le,, 'f creation, the beginning of a new race and its fulfilment. He is the first fruits of hie liberated and consummated in God. In that fulfilment all that we have ex- perienced and known of God in human 11..c will be brought to perfection. The hoduY resurrection of Our Lord prevents us from despising the craftsman's skill, the seeing despising the delight in beauty, the caring hall' or despairing lest what they reveal and el;., press of the glory of God in this life shoutuf be lost in life beyond the grave. Purged of all selfishness and imperfection, what 7! enjoy through them will be fulfilled as the means of sharing in the divine glorY. D Even now the power of the risen Lord given and experienced through our bodies The water flows over us in baptism and es are cleansed and united in Him. We eat an drink the Sacrament of his Body and Blood and, mysteriously, the whole of our being is renewed in union with Him. Through such . acts of grace, body, mind and spirit ar,', consecrated to God. While we await the full realisation of our destiny, our transforms" gtiloory can sacraments of the divine This life of space and time is toe redeemed, not by a release into a Pilaff tasmal world, nor by the grim prospect endlessness. It will be redeemed by its MP, ment in Christ in which the whole of our One, back to to reaGloisde
in ing, shaped in space and time, will, beyo. itslotvreueHtpsogtelontytial, reflecting
Graham Leonard is Bishop of London
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