You read the title, right? If that sort of thing is going to bother you, please skip along to something else.
A few days ago, we drove past this morbidly eye-catching structure made of plywood. It was painted to resemble a stone with a dark rectangular opening. Another circular piece of wood was in front, as if it had been rolled to the side to reveal the entrance, and across the top it read: He is risen.
In that moment, I realized I'd never thought about Jesus being buried or entombed after his crucifixion. (And no, I'm not going to get all crazy about capitalizing pronouns and such: may as well get the sacrilege rolling.) This lead to some talk about the resurrection, how his body was gone, but he appeared to people.
When I heard that, I was totally thrown. "You mean he wasn't corporeal when people saw him after his death?"
"No, he was the Holy Ghost."
"Oh." I'd never understood the deal with the holy ghost and had never cared enough to find out. With this new knowledge, however, the whole resurrection deal seemed completely misnamed. "It's not resurrection if he wasn't corporeal though. A ghost doesn't qualify as being resurrected."
When I think resurrection, I think clawing your way out of the ground. (Too much Buffy perhaps? Nah, not possible.) Having use of your body again is integral to my understanding of the word's definition. I suppose the big R is christianity's way around that. Still, it's not surprising that resuscitation and revival are the terms generally used in the medical field instead.
One year ago at TTaT: This is no time for faux-pas
Technorati tags: resurrection, definitions
Wow, you're a tough crowd! I can picture you standing outside the tomb in Jesus Times going, "Hmm. You look pretty translucent to me. Come back when you're more zombie, less Casper." Then the ghost of Jesus would say, "I could year you not capitalizing those pronouns. Good thing I'm a forgiving ghost."
ReplyDeleteBut then I'd say, "See? You just called yourself a ghost and ghosts are just visions or spirits. Other people* claim to have seen ghosts other than you. If you're considered resurrected, why aren't they?"
ReplyDelete*at least nowadays anyway
It might be more likely that I'd just say the day's equivalent of "Holy frak!" though. ;)
I guess I'd never really thought about how he appeared to people either. I did have the whole cave and missing boulder image in my head, but not the idea that he was really just a ghost and his body magically disappeared for Heaven. Weird.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I spent a whole lot of my wasted childhood in sunday school, and either the teachers were ignorent or I misunderstood - but didn't jesus go to thomas to show himself as real so that thomas would not doubt the ressurection? (Nice sentence structure...)
ReplyDeleteKevin: yeah... the missing body is another oddity to me.
ReplyDeleteMel: Ah, the whole doubting Thomas thing. As you may surmise, I have no idea. I was going from how my mom understood it from her liberal Baptist (those were the days!) upbringing. My religious knowledge comes mainly from art history, and I suppose tv/film.
Good Friday is called good because of what Christians believe that had been accomplished through Jesus' death.
ReplyDeleteThroughout history, it is believed that there is a separation between God and humanity because of sin.
The original harmony God had created, harmony with God, harmony with others, harmony with nature, and harmony with self, was broken.
Christians believe that Jesus death and resurrection took place for the possibility of forgiveness of sins and a restoration of the harmony that had been broken.
Much more can be written and nuanced but this is not the place.
Incidentally, the Greek Orthodox Church calls it "Great Friday".
Arne
Sorry! I just realized that I posted a response to a different blog entry. :(
ReplyDeleteIt is not Christian theology to believe that the resurrected Jesus was the Holy Ghost.
First of all, the term "Holy Ghost" is archaic language coming from the time of Shakespeare. Although it is still used, partly because of the use of the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, the current nomenclature is "Holy Spirit".
Trinitarian Christian theology carefully distinguishes between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The teachings of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospels, also demarcate between Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The question of the historicity of the resurrection has been discussed much since the time of Albert Schweitzer's "Quest for a Historical Jesus". Karl Bultmann was an especially big name in this quest.
Joachim Jeremias, C. H. Dodd, T. W. Manson, Geza Vermes, Ed Sanders, Ben Meyer, Anthony Harvey, Marcus Borg, E. P. Sanders, Robert Funk, Jon Dominic Crossan, Dale Allison, Bart Ehrman, Dale Allison, Paula Fredriksen, A. J. Levine, Jimmy Dunn, Gert Thiessen, Ernst Käsemann are just a few names involved in this quest.
How one does history and what one's presuppositions are will affect how one will conclude about the resurrection.
If one presumes the existence of God and the possibility of God to be able to perform miracles, it will affect the conclusions as to how one views the resurrection.
Another question is involved with what the resurrection actually is. Does it include the resuscitation of a corpse? What kind of body would the resurrected Jesus Christ have? (The New Testament writers did NOT believe that the resurrected body was just a spirit.)
Ultimately, the resurrection of Jesus is a matter of faith.
Arne
Arne: Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on these posts.
ReplyDeleteNever heard the holy ghost theory, and my dad's a Lutheran minister, so I've been to a few Easter services... All I've learnt is that he was different afterwards. The holy ghost (from what I learnt) didn't appear until the Pentecost. I.e. that was the Pentecost... Erh, whatever :)
ReplyDeleteScholiast: Hunh. The dictionary agrees with you. (I'd heard of it but needed to look up Pentecost.)
ReplyDeleteI don't get Easter in that case, unless it's just a somewhat arbitrary day chosen to celebrate the resurrection.