Easter - Is it all symbolic?

John 20:1-18

Why do we as pastors look at this week and scratch our heads? Perhaps it is the challenge of saying something 'new' at the biggest Holy Day of services in our year. Seasoned pastors struggle not to repeat, huh? Weird, but there it is. Even our Bible study this morning had some awkward pauses of 'what to study'. Don't we deal with this same story every year? Leave it to the inspiration of an honest friend in our midst to start the conversation rolling. Not - what new can we say, but - how do we really understand resurrection? And, more importantly, what does it mean to us?

Okay - so the way she worded the question was, "My friend is an intellectual who just can't believe in a bodily resurrection, but she still identifies herself as a Christian. How do we see this? Symbolically, literally? Are you still a Christian if you don't believe in bodily resurrection?" There was a collective sigh in the room as 20 people began to struggle with the elephant in the room. Is Christianity an outdated religion that has been proven wrong by science and is only believeable if you suspend intelligence? I firmly believe NO!

Sooo is everything in the Bible reduceable to symbolic fluff that has a good intent on teaching us through metaphors and loose stories? Gee - I have no bias there, NO again! It is not totally symbolic. Something must have happened after the death of Jesus on the cross that was so amazing that it captured the attention of the world and has held it for so long. We weren't all dupes in the largest scam around. Nor are we all doubting Thomases who have to touch to believe.

So where do we stand. Was Jesus resurrected in a physical body? Some in the room in my study said absolutely. Some said absolutely not. Some fell in between with a resurrection in a 'heavenly' body. Some were silent or perhaps fell into a gray area somewhere in the middle. What I find amazing and proof in itself that the resurrection exists and is powerful and at work among us is that the room still sat together and discussed/debated/analyzed despite our differences of understanding. In respect and love together struggling with God's Word.

The conundrum of proof, literalism vs symbolism vs some compromise. I dare say it doesn't matter. I firmly believe that God is capable of bodily resurrection, and I also believe that it wouldn't be required for the miracle of Jesus' resurrection to hold the same power. My intellectual meets my faith in that I believe God stands outside all rules and understandings of science. I believe in the miracle and in the limitations of understandings of humans. Time and again our hard and fast rules, our knowledge, facts have been proven erroneous.

Our gospels don't describe a physical body. In John, Mary who one would assume should recognize Jesus mistook him for the gardener and is then told not to touch Jesus. Luke tells us He is risen, and then the disciples' "eyes were kept from recognizing Him." Matthew has women grasping a 'raised' Jesus' feet, but some of the disciples doubted. Mark simply says He has been raised, and the women run away in fear.

Wouldn't it be easier to have hard and fast answers in black and white about why Jesus might not have been recognized? Woudn't it be better if we could all touch the nail holes like Thomas? EEuw, perhaps not. (Gross in physical repulsion and fear of daring to demand such.) We live in a world of gray. God has presented us with many ways to understand creation and love and to grow closer to God. Certainly not the least of these is Jesus who proved that even the largest limitation placed on humans - death - has no power over God. All gospels have an empty tomb in common.

How we want to see God - physically, symbolically, whatever is far less important than the fact that God came in human form, overcame death and is Alive!

The empty tomb is the point! Like our divisive denominations who get caught up in side issues, I think we tend to have an eye slip. We are diverted from the main point because it doesn't fit our rules/our norm. This messiah wasn't what we would think of as kingly! This messiah didn't defend against all enemies and instead went to death on a cross. This messiah didn't follow our scientific rules and stay put in the tomb. We think and want so much to understand our world and to define our God. I want every t crossed and every i dotted according to the established decorum of my time. But God is outside of our understanding. My eye slips to the argument and piece I can try to define and hold in my hand. God can be and do in ways that are beyond anything we can begin to grasp.

Instead of giving us up for a lost cause, God came in human form. My personal understanding is that the 'body' that was raised was a body like that in whose image we are made not necessarily a normal physical human body. But after death and resurrection, our eyes too would have trouble recognizing Him. I'm okay with not fully being able to describe that because it still shows a God not afraid to get down in the dirt with common man and live in order to understand us fully. And to then triumph over death. It gives me hope for what is beyond. It gives me hope for a vision of a future earth where all are welcomed in love and the door is barred to none. Nothing can separate us from this all-powerful, extravagant love. Nothing - not even our own lack of understanding or judgments of ourselves or peers.

That, that is the amazing gift of Easter. A grace from which none are turned away. What an incredible love so vast it encompasses all our understandings and keeps going, knowing no bounds. He is Risen!