Glorified Bodies

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

I was looking in the mirror the other day and I noticed something about myself. My clothing fit. Now you’ve got to understand – this is a rare thing for me. I’m not one of those people who can go to the store and find a 32 inch waist with a 32 inch inseam – a 32/32, and it works. I have a 47 inch waist and a 28 ½ inch inseam, a combination that is hard to find in the stores. Even my arms are hard to fit in a shirt, because I take a 33 inch sleeve, which is very hard to find on an 18 ½ inch neck. So I usually make do with Triple X shirts, and I prefer short sleeves.

But you know, the statistics tell me that I am only a little bit on the high side for the state I’m living in – West Virginia. My doctor doesn’t believe in those statistics, though. He wants me to figure out how to get on the low side of the state average for my height, which will bring me down to a safer weight. And so I’ve made some changes to my diet and I’m trying to slim down.

I guess that there aren’t many of us in this room that could be said to have a “glorified body”. In fact, there are many of us in this room that have bodies that are downright scary. And we know that this is a problem. Our doctors all tell us that if we continue onward, our bodies will lead us to meet Jesus a bit sooner than we’d prefer.

But for most of us, our body still functions. It gets us from point A to point B, even though it may not be as quickly as it once did – or we would like it to travel. But in our first reading from the Book of Acts, there was a guy whose body would not get him from point A to point B – and that caused both a lot of problems for him – and led to a great miracle by Jesus Christ working through the Apostles Peter and John. Luke writes:

2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.

Can you imagine this guy’s life? In a time before wheelchairs, before handicap ramps, before any sort of help for people with disabilities, this man was carried to sit in front of the Beautiful gate to the Temple every day to beg, and that evening was carried home. We don’t know who carried him, but it appears he had at least one friend – or someone who he paid to carry him to and fro.

And so he sat there every day as people from all over the Empire walked past him, asking for coins that would buy him food, coins that would get him water, coins that would keep him living a bit longer. He had no health insurance because no one in the world had health insurance, because the skill of doctors had not progressed to the point where they could do him any good. In those days, at that time and place, if a man or woman received a wound that opened up the skin, it was likely that they would die from the infection, for there were no antibiotics. In fact, there was not even the concept of keeping the wound clean. And so no one dreamed of cutting someone open to fix what was inside. Any surgical operation would have resulted in a slow, lingering death.

The plight of this man was even worse than most people would guess. In the Old Testament, in Leviticus, there was a passage which said that those who were lame must not enter the sanctuary of the Temple. 16 The Lord said to Moses, 17 “Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. 18 No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; 19 no man with a crippled foot or hand,..”(Lev 21)

This man could not offer any sacrifice to God. And by the time of the New Testament, this prohibition had spread to keeping all the lame out of the Temple completely, the quest by the Temple leaders to keep the Temple pure had reached the point where people who were lame could not enter the Temple, they could not make sacrifices, and thus they could not get right with God. They were not considered pure, and they were not considered good enough to enter the Temple. It was as though we banned anyone who needed a wheelchair or crutches or who had serious health issues from entering our sanctuary and taking communion. He also was banned from entering because of the way he looked and the way he acted, which, of course, was because of something he had no control over – his disability.

But Peter and John had seen this man for a long time, and when they approached the Temple that day, they apparently had a plan, for they both fixed their eyes upon the guy.

4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.

He was finally able to enter the Temple! He could go to God now and offer his sacrifices. Plus, he could now work at a regular job and did not need to beg anymore.

And from the Apostle’s point of view, Jesus was now working miracles through them. The Holy Spirit had guided them and now the power of the Holy Spirit was flowing through Peter’s words and hand. Here was a great miracle, a great affirmation, a great sign that the power of God had indeed come with the Holy Spirit and had not gone back to Heaven when Jesus returned. The Resurrection power of Christ had lifted this man from his seat and allowed him to leap!

And the formerly lame man had a new body that worked much better than his old one. This new body had been touched by the Holy Spirit and strength had flowed into them. The glory of the Lord had touched him, and he would never be the same.

John Wesley wrote of the time before the Fall, a time when Adam and Eve walked upon the earth in a Garden with the Tree of Life, perfectly created by God. Sickness and disease did not exist – the body’s defense mechanism’s were perfect, as if we were made from another substance entirely. Even Adam’s mind functioned wonderfully – he gave names to all the types of animals quickly and efficiently. There was no fogginess, no forgetfulness, no feeling of sleepiness. Adam’s mind functioned better than Albert Einstein’s mind after a good night’s sleep when Einstein was 21 years old. We don’t have any idea how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden – it may have been a few days or it might have been thousands of years. But even after the Fall, Adam lived for over 900 years.

When Adam was kicked out of the Garden, it was as if some important substance in Adam’s body was gradually lost, and he became less and less capable of functioning. And the same thing happened to his descendents – they began in excellent condition, but as they lived in the world, that great, wonderful substance was replaced with ordinary materials, and generation after generation lived shorter and shorter lives. It is like elastic losing its flexibility or a blacktop road gradually losing its tar, or a painted fence from which the paint has gradually flecked off – or like men making copies of copies of a Stradivarius violin – what was once perfect becomes less and less perfect with each generation.

And then we move forward from the time of Adam to the time of the new Adam, Jesus Christ. It is that first Easter Sunday, and the disciples are gathered, when Jesus appears to them.

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.

This passage is very important, because it helps us to understand a few things about the Risen Christ. First of all, the point is clearly made that Jesus is NOT a ghost, not a spirit being, but instead is present in a cleaned up body. The blood is gone, He looks good. In fact, He looked so different from the last time His disciples saw Him on Friday that in another passage in Luke, the men on the road to Emmaus don’t even recognize Him when He walks beside them for several miles. Despite his intense lashing with a whip in which was embedded broken glass and nails, despite his crucifixion, despite having spear thrust in His side, Jesus is fit and ready to start for the Green Bay Packers! Yet his scars were still there, as we saw last week when Thomas doubted and Jesus asked him to touch His hands and his side. Finally, Jesus eats some fish, which tells us that the normal processes of the body continue.

Theologians call the new body that Jesus has a “glorified body.” This is the body that has been restored to the functional perfection of the Garden – a body which will not age and will not fade over time. Paul calls it “incorruptible.” Interestingly enough, Jesus’ glorified body does show one sign which we normally associated with age – in Revelation 1:13 “among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.”

Jesus’ hair has turned white. Apparently white hair is not really a sign of age, but is a sign of wisdom and authority?

And what about us? What shall happen to us when Christ calls us back from death?

“2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”

We shall be like Him. We shall once again have a glorified body which is filled with the incorruptible aspect of Christ’s body – and Adam’s original, pre-sin body.

What does this mean?

Incorruptible means it doesn’t rust or wear out or rot.

I used to think that a glorified body meant I was back in my 18-year-old body, when I weighed 155 pounds and could easily run up the steps on the campus at Morgantown with 20 pounds of textbooks, and recover my breath within a half dozen steps at the top of the stairwell. Now, I’d be happy with my 40 year old body. What age shall our body be? I don’t know.

The key thing is that the glorified body does not age. We know that it is different enough in appearance that Jesus was not immediately recognized on the road to Emmaus, but it is not a perfect body in appearance, for His scars were still present. Yet, it appears, that all the necessary functions of the body are still there – we walk, we talk, we eat. Scars, it appears, are only skin deep, badges of honor, marks of wisdom like white hair on a body that functions without decay, lasting without sickness nor disease for hundreds and thousands of years the way our bodies were supposed to work.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen more and more articles recently about the man-made immortality that is supposedly coming upon us, as doctors defeat old age with new treatments, with artificial organs, and artificial joints, replacing bone and cartilage with titanium and plastics.

But have you noticed something? An original hip joint, made of bone and cartilage, lasts for 70 or 80 years. The replacement lasts for 10 or 15. We have a long way to go.

And now there are those people who talk about us uploading our memories into computers so that we will last forever. But I don’t think I’ll take advantage of that opportunity.

You see, I think I would rather live in a God-designed incorruptible body that has perfect regeneration and does not wear out than in a machine-like body that wears out, or in an electronic mind that is subject to being scrambled by a power surge. I’d rather trust in God’s ability to design than in Silicon Valley.

And what leads me to think that our future is such an incorruptible body?

For one thing, Paul says in I Cor 15 “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

55 “O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”

Another important passage is this one from our Third Reading by John: 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him…”

This is important because it reminds us that we are children of God. We will not become angels with wings, for you see, the angels are the servants in the household of God. When we are children in a king’s household, the servants watch over us and protect us, and they may even give us orders. But when we become adults, we look the servants in the eye and take our proper place in the household, as princes and princesses of the kingdom.

And there are two other reasons for my hope.

The first is the demonstration given to us by the lame man that Peter and John met at the Beautiful gate. This man had a body that functioned as well as the body of a bedfast man in a nursing home. But when Peter and John told him to walk in the name of Jesus Christ, the power of the Resurrected Christ flowed into him and he walked. He not only walked, but he was able to leap! The power of Christ is amazing.

We, too, can gain some of that power by learning to listen to and follow the Holy Spirit.

The second reason for my hope is this: John Wesley pondered upon the purpose of Communion. We know that there is something more than a mere remembering in Communion, for Jesus did not do anything that was meaningless, and this was something He told us to do, to share a meal of bread and wine, a meal that He said consisted of His body and His blood. Yet, we know from our senses that when we eat the bread we do not eat human flesh, and when we drink the juice we are not drinking human blood. And so what does this mysterious ceremony truly mean? What is its purpose?

Wesley thought – and I do too – that in some mysterious way in which we don’t fully understand, the supernatural presence of Christ is present in the consecrated bread and juice. In some way that we simply can’t see or taste or smell, Jesus Himself is there in His spirit. And in some way that we can’t prove with any scientific study, the mysterious life-giving substance that was once present throughout Adam’s body flows through the bread and the juice into our bodies when we eat and drink the elements. As John said, 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” As we receive Communion and eat this life-giving substance, do our bodies purify themselves and restore that mysterious substance that was lost after the Fall?

You’ve seen some evidence of this in your lives. Your friends who never receive communion are dying, often from their sin addictions and their sinful choices at early ages. We read their obituaries, we see the postings on Facebook, we grieve with their families, we sense the fear in those families and our sadness for them tears us apart. They and their families die many times along the way even before their hearts stop beating.

At the other extreme, we see the pleasant, happy, godly men and women who have had a long relationship with God living into their 80’s and 90’s and sometimes breaking the century mark. When their time comes, we see peace in their eyes and hear words of comfort from them as they go to be with their Lord. We even seen those believers who have been diagnosed at an early age with a dreadful disease living for many months or years or even decades beyond what they have first been told by the doctors, surprising them, and lifting the spirits of all those around them in the process.

I’m not saying that Holy Communion is a longevity food, but I am saying that the spiritual aspects of our obedience to Christ will often take what body you have and do good with that time you’ve been given, perhaps even extending your time to help others on this earth and at the very least having a peaceful journey to that place which so few have returned from, those few that Christ and the Apostles raised. Even as the bodies of Christian believers die, they still live.

And those who do not obey Christ reap the death that was promised to them as the natural results of that disobedience. As with the ancients and the lightning that strikes from thunderstorms, there is something here we don’t understand, but even if we don’t understand it, there is something here we should be in awe of. Receiving Holy Communion is an important part of obeying Christ – and it is life-giving in some mysterious way.

You know, so many times we allow Christ and the Holy Spirit to come into part of our lives, but keep Him out of the rest of our lives, like a house that has public rooms where company can visit and private rooms that company is not allowed into.

Imagine, if you will, that the mysterious substance that gave Adam his long life was the breath of God within Him. Remember how Adam came to life? Genesis 2:7 says 7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

In the ancient languages, breath and spirit are the same word. What Adam had within him that gave him that long life was the breath, or spirit of God. Allowing that spirit into the far reaches of your body, into the distant rooms of your mind, into your entire life is life-giving. What was dead will live again when you bring Christ into your entire life, into all the rooms of your life, letting Him roam throughout you as He wills instead of confining Him to a few hours on Sunday, or even letting Him into everything but THAT place in your life, that place in your life where you really could use Him…your marriage, your relationship with your children and grandchildren, your relationship with your boss, your daily interactions at the grocery store or at work.

Here’s how to tell if you have not let the life-giving Holy Spirit flow into a room of your life: During your life, when do you feel dead, hopeless, defeated, depressed, frustrated, upset, angry or sad? That is the room which you have kept locked and kept the Holy Spirit from moving into. If politics makes you angry, invite the Holy Spirit to join you as you watch the news. If your work is frustrating, take the Holy Spirit to work with you. If you are having problems with your family, bring the Holy Spirit to the dinner table with you. And if you are sad about something that has happened or worried about something that will happen, ask the Holy Spirit to sit and talk with you a while you go through those pictures in the attic of your mind. Let the Spirit redecorate those dead rooms with life, turning the gray and angry red of your life into beautiful sunny yellows and sky-blues of beauty and happiness, lifting you up to a new life which will flow through you and over you and even overflow out of you into others as the glory of God spills from your heart in joy!

For you see, my friends, the glorified body of Christ – and of our future – is not merely about an incorruptible body. It is about a joyful, incorruptible spirit that He has – and we shall have – as God’s glory comes to fill us with overflowing wonder.