The Holiness of the Resurrection

Earlier this week, I was watching a Midsomer Murders mystery on Netflix. As the climax of the movie arrived, we found that a boy we’d thought dead had not died at all, but came back to life “just like Jesus!” - as the now-grown boy explained. And so, I thought, it might be that because of the emotional power of the Resurrection,  so many writers have decided to include a resurrection scene in so many movies and so many books that the Resurrection has lost its holiness.

After all, today almost every superhero movie has the hero or heroine coming back from a state of certain death. Ironman died and came back to life. Superman has come back to life again. Phil Coulson’s miraculous resurrection is the basis of the first couple of seasons of Agents of Shield. Poor Wolverine has been resurrected several times.

In a more evil turn, zombies regularly walk after their death in The Walking Dead. More classic movies such as The Lord of the Rings, Part III have the hobbits essentially killed and spirited off to the heaven of the elves by the eagles, where elven medical care brings them back to life. In the world of cartoons, of course, Daffy Duck must hold the record for resurrections – unless it is Wile E Coyote from the Road Runner cartoons.

Even so-called ordinary tv shows have resurrections – Who can forget Bobby Ewing died on Dallas and came back alive the next season as the writers decided the season was all Pam’s dream? In the new Roseanne, her husband, who died in the last season, is back from the dead. And the ability of soap opera characters to come back from the dead multiple time is legendary.

Acts 3:12-19, Psalm 4; 1 John 3:1-7, Luke 24:36-48 

And as a plot device - how many medical shows have a touching moment when the beloved patient dies on the table – but the skilled doctors bring him or her back? How many times is a good cop or detective shot and killed in a season-ending climatic scene – only to reappear, healed when the show comes back in September? Or, the sidekick we thought was dead shoots dead the villain, who is about to kill the hero, and we see the sidekick bandaged in the final scene?

The most ingenious resurrection twist I ever saw in a television series was a short-lived series from the 1970’s called Nichols, about a town and a man named, appropriately Nichols – played by James Garner. At the end of the first season, with the writers planning a retooling of the low rated show, Frank Nichols is killed off at the beginning of the season-ending episode. His twin brother, Jim Nichols soon arrives to revenge his brother. Jim is also played by James Garner, now wearing a mustache. We kept waiting for Jim to strip off his mustache and reveal himself to be Frank in disguise. But he never did – the hero of the series had truly been killed. But the plan was for the new Nichols to have a different personality for the second season so they could gain better ratings. But the new resurrected Nichols wasn’t enough to resurrect the dead series. It died…and stayed dead. 

Yet in our real world, there are people who are truly dying every day. They die – and they don’t come back to life. And the world seems to focus upon this horrible idea of death – nothing is worse than death, we think. Death is the end, we think. We argue about how to "reduce" deaths – and for a minute, we forget that death is something we humans can’t stop – only postpone.

But there is One who truly reduced the number of deaths – because He defeated death upon the cross and was truly Resurrected. There is an important message here – we have been given the gift of defeating death for ourselves – if only we will accept that gift. And we can help others receive that gift - and truly reduce the number of deaths, for those who follow Christ will live forever.

So let’s look at the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and some related ideas:

First of all, let’s distinguish between the Resurrection – and a resuscitation. A resuscitation is when someone’s heart stops and the doctors are able to get it running again with a combination of CPR, those ever-present electric defibrillator paddles, and possibly some appropriate drugs.

Fifty years ago, when these techniques were coming about, there was great debate over whether a person died when their heart stopped beating. Now, brain activity is considered the standard. Death occurs when the brain activity stops.

Our doctors have found that after three or four minutes without good pumping action, the brain begins to die, suffering damage, and is almost surely dead after 8 or 10 minutes. Other parts of the body begin to die even if blood flow is restored after about 15 to 20 minutes, and their death will release poisons into the blood that will cause the dominos to fall over the next few days even with intensive treatment.

What the television shows don’t tell us is that most patients whose heart has stopped for five or six minutes will die within a few days, even if resuscitated to regain consciousness for a few hours. And those few people who are successfully resuscitated, have weeks of hospital and nursing home recovery time ahead of them. In this, the TV shows that have our formerly physically fit heroes mostly recovering from their wounds over the three-month summer break – and still being physically weak when the new season begins - are accurate.

Jesus was dead on the cross for an extended time – at least a half hour and possible a few hours. He had lost significant blood from the beatings he endured, the nail wounds, and after his death from the spear thrust into his lungs and heart. He was not resuscitated. Something else happened.

In addition, we should always remember that the eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ Resurrection record a vigorous man who walked miles on that Easter Sunday, a man who had not just survived, but was better than new!

Jesus was not resuscitated. Something more powerful happened.

In the gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, we see that both Jesus and the Apostles bring others back from the dead. In the Old Testament, Elijah and Elisha bring people back from the dead. These are rightly portrayed as miracles, for these men did far more than simply give medical care to people. Yet skeptics try to pretend that Jesus, the prophets, and the Apostles simply have some EMT training that the general populace doesn’t have.

Take Lazarus, for instance. First, Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick. Jesus waits for several days. Then, word comes to Jesus that Lazarus has died. It is only then that Jesus decides to take the hundred mile walk to Bethany.

When Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been in the tomb four days. People are still mourning him – not just his two sisters, but crowds of people. They are so sure of his death, that when Jesus asks for the tomb to be opened, Martha feels the need to remind Jesus that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days and he will be stinking like a dead dear beside the road.

But Jesus does not enter the tomb. He stands in front of the tomb and prays. He then yells for Lazarus to “Come forth!” and Lazarus comes out of the tomb.

Where was the special EMT medicine? Where are the electric paddles. Where is the oxygen?

Nowhere to be seen.

A week later, Lazarus and Jesus are the guests of honor at a banquet.

There is something special about this, just as the other times people were raised from the dead by Jesus, the prophets, or the Apostles.

But there is still something even more special about Jesus’ own Resurrection, something that sets it far above Lazarus, for tradition has it that Lazarus lived a normal life and died as bishop on the island of Cyprus. Lazarus died twice. For Lazarus, this "raising" by Jesus was not the final resurrection. One day Lazarus will be given his final Resurrection. In the meantime, these raisings from the dead are somewhere between a resuscitation – and the final Resurrection.

For there is the Resurrection of Jesus. It is far, far different from these “raisings”.

Jesus was beaten badly. His skin was ripped off his back by the cat-o’nine tails, a multiple part whip with glass and nails and sharp rocks embedded that ripped human flesh like cat’s claws rip. He was beaten about the head and the crown of thorns punctured the skin on his head so it bled. His wrists and ankles were nailed to the cross with nails that were perhaps a foot long or more. And finally, after he was already dead, the spear was stuck into his side and out poured blood and water.

Yet on Resurrection morning, Mary thinks that Jesus is the strong gardener until he turns to her. And then she is joyful. Later that day, Jesus walks to Emmaus – a village about 5 or 6 miles from Jerusalem and looks fine – just different, somehow. That evening, Jesus appears to the ten disciples and eats some fish with them. The next week, he appears to all Eleven including Thomas and shows off his scars. It is clear that he is not a ghost, not a spirit, not just an image but is fully present – mind, body, and soul.

Jesus’ old body has been made new. His old body has been fully repaired, but the scars are still there. The healing process has apparently progressed at a rate a hundred times faster than normal. But he clearly has a body – he is not a spirit being, for he eats and talks and later he even cooks breakfast for a group of disciples. Broiled fish is what He eats. He cooks a breakfast of fish over a wood fire on the beach for his disciples. There is something special about fish.

In Revelation, Jesus is seen as a strong, fit powerful man with white hair, signifying his great wisdom. He is not described as we would describe an old man except for the hair.

And he is still alive, even though nearly 2000 years have passed.

There is something different, something special, something holy about the Resurrection of Jesus. And that is well, for we know that Jesus is holy. But what does it mean to be holy?

The Greek word that is used is hagios. The root meaning of this word is “separate” or “apart”. So holy essentially means to be separate or apart. The word is the root of "against".

God is holy. God is separate.

Items become holy when we place them separate from the regular world. We have holy plates up here to receive offerings. We have holy candles. We have a holy Bible. We have holy communion cups.

They have all been kept separate from the regular world and so they are holy.

The ancient Temple in Jerusalem had degrees of holiness. Outermost was the court of the Gentiles in which anyone could enter. Then, as we moved inward were areas where only Jews could walk, then only Jewish men, then only Levites, then only priests, and finally, the Holy of Holies, where only God and the high priest could be together – and a rope was tied around the high priest’s ankle in case God found that the priest was not holy enough, struck him dead and forced his friends to drag him out. It had happened before! Holiness – separation from the world – is a matter of degree.

As we look at people coming back from the dead, we find something special with those people whose hearts stopped and then were restarted. We find something more special with those who were dead for hours or days and we raised from the dead by Jesus or a prophet or an Apostle. But there was something very unworldly, something different, something holy about Jesus’ Resurrection.

• Perhaps it was the fact that he predicted his death and Resurrection. 
• Perhaps it was the fact that his body was so completely injured and yet He arose. 
• Perhaps it was the fact that no one was there with Him – no one of this earth, that is. Perhaps it was the fact that God alone was with Jesus and therefore it was God’s will that lifted Jesus from death that makes his Resurrection so holy. 

In 1 Peter 1:16, Peter quotes God saying to us:

“Be holy, because I am holy.”

God – God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit – is holy. God is separate from the world. Jesus inherently came back from the dead because Jesus had remained separate from the world.

It is like walking upon a group of children playing a game of cops and robbers with toy guns. “Bang! You’re dead” says Bobby, one of the children, to his younger brother Johnny, who falls down and then tearfully runs to his mother, crying that “Bobby shot me dead!”

Billy, the oldest, wisest child watches the game. His younger brother Bobby also shoots him with his toy gun. “Bang! You’re dead” Bobby says to the older brother Billy. Brother Billy falls dead. But then, after a minute or two, he stands up and walks over to the adults watching the game.

“I thought you were dead,” his father says.

And Billy replies, “Dad, I know I can’t be harmed by his toy gun. I’m alive.”

And so it is with us. We must step outside the game like Billy does, or we will not realize that our death is only temporary.

Are you in the world’s game that Satan has put people into, beginning with Adam and Eve, fearing death?  Or have you chosen to step outside the game, choosing to follow Jesus to the world of the spiritual adults where death is just a transition, not an ending?

Be holy. Separate yourself from the world and follow Jesus along the path of holiness.

But how do we follow Jesus?

The first step is to read the four Gospels. Read cover to cover the four books Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, and discover what Jesus did, what Jesus said, what Jesus commanded us. Start with the Gospel of Mark, then read the other three. John will be very different from the others.

Notice as you read the following key things:

• God loves everyone and expect us to learn to love everyone. 
• Jesus is gentle to the broken and stands up to the haughty, the strong, the powerful. 
• Jesus is absolutely willing to do what God says – even when it is unpopular and painful for him personally. 

So I ask you:

· Have you learned to love all people – and I mean every single person you encounter?

· Are you gentle to broken people, to the struggling, to those who need friends? Do you stand up to the cruel, the strong, the powerful, the arrogant – yet strive to help them also?

· Are you willing to do what God says to do, even if it means spending some time to speak to people about His son?

That last one is the most difficult. We want to serve God on our terms. We signed on to be the cook – we don’t want to greet guests. We signed on to be the trustee – we don’t want to read scripture. We signed on to be a greeter at the front door – we don’t want to deliver a sermon. We signed on to serve on our terms – we don’t want to do what God needs us to do.

It is like we’ve chosen to work a job at Disney World. We want to be Snow White or Mickey Mouse or sell tickets or sweep up trash. We want to maintain the rides, play trombone in the band or load people in the carts on the Mad Hatter ride. We want to sell shirts in an air-conditioned shop because we don't like the mid-Florida heat and humidity, or we want to be the drum major.

But imagine a day when evil attacks the park. What jobs will we do?

On the day when evil attacks the park, everyone is called upon to give first aid, to get people to safety, to help everyone get home safe and sound. The park employees are in the park, but they are not guests of the park.

And that is what God asks of us to be holy. We are in the world but not of the world.

For every day, evil is attacking this world. Everyday, people need spiritual first aid. Every day, there are people who are headed into evil who need to be shown the safe way out of this world. Everyday, we are called by God to get everyone home to God, safe and sound. And it doesn’t matter what we wanted to do that day. Everything is different when eternal life hangs in the balance.

Service is a key to becoming holy. Following Jesus can not be limited to a part time job, a specialty calling, a service where we only serve certain people. Following Jesus is something we must do every waking minute, for people are falling dead out there every minute. And we hold the keys to safety - a holy Resurrection. We are the spiritual adults who know the toy guns and game deaths are not final.

And you? If you follow Jesus, you will also be resurrected one day – not resuscitated, not just raised from the dead, but fully and completely resurrected, with a new resurrected body in New Jerusalem, a magical kingdom, the land where the spiritual adults live, the land where God and Christ rule directly.

So join me in giving thanks to the One who stepped forward, stood up to the evil attacking the world, and through His sacrifice allowed us to become eligible for that holy resurrection. Give thanks to Jesus the Christ!