The Risen Christ-Something So Much More
When Jesus rose from the dead three days after bearing our sins on the Cross, he, without announcement, had somehow changed. He had not become less and come as a ghost, but he came as something more. Suddenly, Jesus can appear and disappear from rooms even though they touched him, and he ate to show clearly that he was in body.
When he appeared and disappeared on the road to Emmaus, the followers of Jesus did not recognize him. He was not exactly the same as before, for he was not raised from the dead but rather resurrected. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but Lazarus would later die.
Jesus, in this resurrected body, was clearly never going to die again. This was not a Harry Potter “resurrection’ where he could be killed again, but a real resurrection meaning a life that could never end. Jesus’ new life was beyond the power of this world to destroy. Jesus had not come to put off death but to conquer death.
The Risen Christ- Something So Much More
Not just barely but completely:
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[a] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.[b]
54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[a]
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”[b]
Yes, Jesus was the first:
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
We do not see any discussion of Jesus resurrection body, but the disciples lost their fear of death in seeing the body they could gain upon death. Jesus was the first fruit of resurrection, thus making the promise of new life clearly real. The disciples were not left to wonder, but rather knew.
Jesus could leave Earth then, and they would never lose what they had come to know. Jesus had not been raised from the dead, but rather resurrected. Thus, we needed a new word. God was doing something totally new, and the world would never be the same. Thank you God for showing us something more as we need it.
