[Dialogue] 7/23/15, Spong: Resurrection: Pious Dream or Reality? Part XI, Conclusion

Thu Jul 23 07:13:14 PDT 2015

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Resurrection: Pious Dream or Reality?
 Part XI, Conclusion

In this column, I turn to the Fourth Gospel to complete our journey through the New Testament. Our purpose has been to see what the New Testament really says about the resurrection of Jesus. When we examine the biblical texts in a thorough manner, we discover, sometimes to our astonishment, that what the Bible actually says about the Easter event and what we think the Bible says are not the same thing. Since this is the final column in this series, before looking at John’s understanding of the resurrection let me quickly review our journey.

We began with Paul, who wrote between 51 and 64 C.E. Paul asserts that God “raised Jesus from the dead,” but not back into the life of this world. For Paul this resurrection was rather an expression of the fact that the Jesus of history was raised into the eternal life of God. Out of this God presence, Paul asserts, the raised Christ was manifested or made visible to certain chosen witnesses. Paul then lists those witnesses. They are: Cephas, the Twelve, 500 brethren at once, James, the Apostles and finally Paul himself. We looked at this list in some detail, stretching as it does into a period of time up to a minimum of a year. We then looked at other parts of the Pauline corpus that might throw light on what Paul understood “resurrection” to be. In Romans Paul indicates that when God raised Jesus from the dead he became the Son of God (Rom 1:1-4). Later in that same Epistle, Paul indicates that the raised Christ would never die again, that is, he was no longer subject to death (Rom 6:9-10). Paul is clearly saying that the resurrection is not a resuscitated body raised back into the life of this world. For many people, this Pauline data is surprising, in some cases it is distressing to their traditional beliefs.

 Then we looked at Mark, the first gospel to be written, dated about 72 C.E. In this gospel the raised Christ does not appear to anyone. There is only a messenger making a resurrection announcement in which he instructs the disciples to return to their homes in Galilee with the promise that there they will encounter or see the raised Christ. That is all Mark said. So startling was this conclusion that people later wrote new endings to Mark to overcome that weakness. Any Bible that contains any material after Mark 16:8 has included these later writings. They were not part of the original gospel of Mark.

Matthew, which we date around the year 85 C. E., expands Mark’s account in two ways. In Matthew, the women at the tomb do encounter the raised Christ. They even grasp his feet and worship him. This is the first narrative in the entire New Testament that purports to relay to us the actual details of a resurrection appearance. It comes, we need to note, some fifty-five years after the crucifixion. Matthew then proceeds to describe that appearance of the raised Christ in Galilee, which is only promised, never described, in Mark. It takes place on a mountain top, he says. The disciples, bound to this earth, climb up the mountain. Jesus, having been raised into the life of God, appears out of the sky transformed. There is nothing physical about him.

Luke is next, but dating Luke is harder and more controversial than almost any other book in the New Testament. I date Luke between the late eighties, say 89 C.E., and the early nineties, say 92 C.E. It is in Luke that the resurrection of Jesus is transformed into the story of a physically-resuscitated body. In Luke the raised Christ walks, talks, eats, teaches and interprets scripture. He offers his flesh to be felt to prove he is “not a ghost.” He allows the nail marks from his crucified body to be inspected. In Luke he is raised back into the life of the world and is newly alive, but still the same person who had been crucified. Luke’s raised Jesus is so physical that he has to develop the story of the Ascension as the only way he can remove Jesus from history. So it is in the writings of Luke (the book of Acts to be specific) probably written in the 10th decade, that both the story of the Ascension and the story of Pentecost with its outpouring of the Holy Spirit find their way into the developing Christian story. That brief analysis brings us at last to the Fourth Gospel and the final New Testament reference to the narrative of Easter and the resurrection.

John is generally dated between 95-100 C.E. which means that it is a work of the tenth decade, written between 65 and 70 years after the crucifixion, or by the third generation of Jesus’ disciples. John includes four resurrection stories, none of which are replicated anywhere else in the New Testament. The first is the story of Mary Magdalene at the tomb; she is there alone. She does not come with spices to anoint the body. John has made the burial of Jesus a very elaborate affair carried out by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus in which, he says, they used 100 lbs. of spices and aloes. Mary Magdalene is present only as a mourner, weeping at the tomb of Jesus. John says that when she sees that the stone over the mouth of the tomb has been removed, she looks in. The tomb is empty, there is no body.

John then interrupts the Magdalene story to relay the tale that Magdalene runs to where she knew the disciples are in hiding. They are obviously nearby, still in the Jerusalem area. She tells them that the tomb is empty. Grave robbers are clearly suspected. Two of the disciples, Peter and the one the Fourth Gospel alone identifies as “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” are said to have run to the tomb to check out Magdalene’s story. The beloved disciple arrives first, peers in, but does not enter. Then Peter arrives and goes into the tomb immediately. Both see it is empty with the grave clothes in two neat piles where his head and his body were presumably laid. The “Beloved Disciple” views this scene. There is no risen body, but he “believes.” Faith, we note, is born without a body ever appearing. Peter, meanwhile, continues to struggle.

Then John returns to the Magdalene story. She is now back at the tomb still weeping. Looking into the tomb once more she sees two angels, one at the head and the other at the foot of where the body had been laid. They ask Mary why she is weeping. She responds: ‘”because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him.” The clear implication is that the body has been removed, not raised. Then she turns around and sees a man she thinks to be the gardener. He repeats the angels’ question. She gives the same answer, adding: “Sir, if you have carried him away tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.” He speaks her name: “Mary.” She recognizes him and responds: “Rabboni.” He tells her: “Do not hold me for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren and say to them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Mary obeys this command. She never touches him. The text says she tells the disciples: “I have seen the Lord.”

The scene now shifts in the Fourth Gospel to the disciples. They are in hiding somewhere in Jerusalem. The doors are locked, the windows closed. It is the evening of Easter Day. Suddenly in their midst stands Jesus, who presumably does not come in through the doors since they are locked. He greets them and shows them his wounded hands and feet which serve as identifying marks. He breathes on them and they receive the Holy Spirit. The text tells us also that they were glad “when they saw the Lord.” Next, he empowers them to forgive sins. Then presumably he departs as mysteriously as he had arrived.

Only then are we told that one of the disciples, Thomas, was not present so the scene is repeated one week later, the first day of the second week. Once again, the house is secure, the doors locked. Once again, Jesus appears in their midst. Once again he shows his wounds but this time to Thomas alone. Now Thomas believes, but Jesus concludes this vision by saying, you believe Thomas “because you have seen.” The blessed ones will be those “who have not seen and who yet believe.”

So the details in the Fourth Gospel are these, Magdalene mourns at the tomb, but when Jesus appears to her, she cannot touch him. Peter and the beloved disciple come to inspect the empty tomb and faith in the resurrection is born in the beloved disciple without a risen body ever appearing. The disciples confront the mysterious vision of one who is clearly identified as Jesus by the wounds in his hands and feet. He is the giver of the Holy Spirit to them and this is his “second coming.” Finally, Thomas comes to a confession of faith when he says to Jesus: “My Lord and my God.” The final word of the risen Christ to Thomas is, however, a kind of rebuke. The blessed ones, says the risen Christ, are those who have not seen and yet who believe.

Was the resurrection physical? The overwhelming evidence of the New Testament is that it was not. Then what was it? How can we talk about it? The only other material in the New testament that purports to give us data about Easter is the Epilogue of John, chapter 21, written at some time well after the gospel was completed by an unknown writer and attached to the scroll of the gospel we call John.

We will look at this Epilogue later in the year when I will return to the story of the resurrection and try to reconstruct what actually happened in that first experience of Easter. I will then examine four basic questions: Where were the disciples when Easter dawned? Who was it that stood in the center of the Easter experience, whose eyes were open to see and who then opened the eyes of the others? What was the time span between the crucifixion and Easter for which the words “three days” appear to be but a symbol? How were the first believers enabled to see, that is, what was the context in which their eyes were opened? The Epilogue to the Fourth Gospel gives us, I believe, clues to each of these questions and thus it forms a unit of its own. So, look for this section to begin sometime in the fall of this year. It will be fascinating.

John Shelby Spong

Read the essay online here.

Question & Answer

Shelia from Naples, Florida, writes:

 Question:

I am a relatively new Progressive Christian. I was raised in a fundamentalist church, but realized at the age of eight (sixty years ago) that something was not right. As a curious child, I attended a catechism with a Catholic school friend. When the minister of my church learned this from my parents, he chastised me in front of the whole Sunday congregation. This was not right and even at that early age I knew that. I never wanted anything to do with religion for many years. However, in my thirties, I stumbled on to the Unity Movement, which is where I first heard of you. I know that you are aware of this movement.

 In my family, I have a Jewish sister-in-law and her daughter. The sister-in-law is, I guess, what is called “orthodox,” but the daughter is what she described to me as a “Messianic Jew,” one who believes Jesus was the messiah. Trying to understand them enough to get along can be trying because many times they can’t even get along. One thing I don’t feel comfortable asking either of them is: “Why are the Jews known as God’s chosen people?” Many people in this country seem to defend Israel and their actions simply because of this statement. Is it simply because the Jewish priests in the biblical days declared it to be so? I have tried to do some research but come away confused.

 Answer:

Dear Shelia,

 I was in Naples giving lectures at the United Church of Christ in February. It was an exciting church in a very pleasant city. So I am glad you chose to write.

 I apologize to you for the experiences you have had in your life with Christianity. You were the victim of a very small mind. That kind of religion has hurt many with its exclusive claims and its unloving judgments. A minister who is so threatened by a child’s visit to another church with a friend is a pitiful representative of what Christianity is called to be.

 I have great respect for the Unity Movement. I believe Unity is in the vanguard of calling Christianity into a new self-understanding. This movement is deeply life-affirming, not life-denying. It does not wallow in sin, but rather celebrates life. It also recognizes that there are many pathways to God and that none is evil. I have been greatly enriched by my close association with Unity over the years.

 Your sister-in-law and her daughter - one being an “Orthodox” Jew and the other a “Messianic Jew,” one who follows Jesus as messiah, are bound to live in tension. These divergent traditions will never accept the claims of the other. I suggest that you stay out of their arguments and love them both.

 As to the claim of the Jews to be God’s chosen people that is simply part of the Jewish self-identity, which sustained them throughout the long years of their sometimes tragic history. The Jewish story started in slavery in Egypt. It lived through a wilderness experience of homelessness, a time of conquest, a loose-knit tribal confederation, a kingdom, a civil war and then the defeat of both halves of what had once been a single Hebrew nation. They then lived through defeat and exile before finally achieving once again a sense of nationhood. Then they fell under the power of the Macedonians, the Syrians and the Romans.

 The Jewish nation was once again destroyed in the Jewish-Roman War that started in Galilee in 66 CE and ended in a crushing defeat at Masada in 73. In that war, Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed and the Jewish nation was wiped from the maps of human history, not to appear again until 1948. During that long state of being without a homeland, the Jews became a minority in almost every nation of the world. They were regularly hated, victimized by prejudice, not allowed to own land or to become apprentices. They were either expelled or ghettoized in almost every nation of Europe and were finally subjected to genocide in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and 1940’s, with the great democracies of the West and the Vatican simply looking the other way. I suspect that this deep sense of being God’s chosen people allowed them to survive their history. I see nothing wrong with that claim unless they begin to say that they alone are God’s chosen, which would make all non-Jews God’s “unchosen” people.

 The fact is that every people in the world believe they are God’s chosen people and I believe they are all correct. Part of being human is to define yourself within a tribe or nation. There are no people who do not have a story of their origin and all of them imply that their tribe or nation was God’s chosen, or God’s elect. There are no outcasts from the God of Love. So Shelia, I hope you will claim your identity as a child of God - chosen by God and called to be all that you were created to be. None of us can finally build himself or herself up by tearing someone else down.

 So I rejoice that the Jews believe themselves to be God’s chosen people. They are examples to us of what we all are, children of God, loved by God and called to be the people of God. That is the universal human vocation.

 Thanks for writing,
 John Shelby Spong

Announcements

Did you catch this great interview by Charlie Pickering with Bishop Spong on The Weekly, Australian ABC? 
 Watch it here!

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