Jim Valekis
This post-Easter “waiting till Pentecost” season, I’ve been obsessing over the resurrection—studying in slow-motion resurrection sightings, things Jesus did, things Jesus said. Doing what the earliest Christians did—obsessing over Jesus, and talking about him over and over again.
I’ve parked on John 20 this week, and listened to it over and over again, as I take my morning walks or long-distance drives to visit hospice patients. A few highlights this year have surfaced, as I try to do what Jesus said in Matthew 13:
“Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
Here are some of the new things that have surfaced in this year’s visit to the treasure trove we have been given in the stories about the resurrection of Christ.
- John 20:1-8 – Sometimes You Just Have to “Understand” the Scripture Before You Can Believe
This story of the two apostles (Peter and presumably John) running to the tomb after “crazy Mary” (let’s faced it, she used to be possessed by seven demons) came and told them some undefined “they” had taken Jesus out of the tomb, and “we” (others must have been with her) didn’t know where “they” put him ends in a way I hadn’t noticed before.
Notice what it says in verse 9:
9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
They went in saw linen strips lying in some unusual way that caused them to at least to begin to believe. But the reason they needed such forensic proof was because they “didn’t understand” the Scripture saying that the Christ “had” to resurrect from the dead. It lead me to ask the question, “Do I understand the Scriptures that say that?” Oh, I can maybe begin to grasp some of the ones Jesus cited. But do I understand the Bible the way Jesus read the Bible? Jesus saw the resurrection of the dead clearly spoken of in the simple statement God made at the burning bush “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6) as proving the resurrection of the dead. Using bible study rules about “context” and “understanding what the original recipients understood,” it’s easy to simply see that as God saying to Moses “I am the God of your patriarchs,” period.
Do I understand how way more of the Old Testament then I historically realized speaks of Jesus’ resurrection—and the eventual resurrection of us all?
2. John 20:11-18 – Mary “Kübler-Ross” Magdalene and Her Stages of Grief
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross made brilliantly insightful observations about the stages of grief that almost everyone quotes and has accepted as part of the way we conceptualize the grieving process. But I was amazed at what Mary taught me about grief this year—not just her own, but mine as well. Some “they” had taken her loved one (and Lord) away, and she didn’t know where “they” had put them. She was not looking for a living presence in some other form—she was still looking for a dead body to anoint, dress, cry and weep over. She was “standing at the tomb” (where a lot of grievers get stuck) and peeking into it.
She was constantly challenged to ask “Why are you crying,” and even more diagnostically “Who it that you looking for?” And then slowly it began to dawn for her to no longer focus on the dead body, but the new presence her loved on had become—and how he was still “with” her even when she didn’t know it.
“Don’t cling on” to the old way of being with me, I heard Jesus say to her (and to me, about my losses) in verse 17. I am ascending. And we’re still together, in your Father and my Father, God.
3. John 20:19-12 – Where Sunday Go To Meeting Came From, and Where Joy Comes From—Living Forgiven, and Living Forgiving
A pattern kept repeating itself in this resurrection story and the other resurrection stories I read. Disciples would gather. Jesus would show up. They’d see he was alive. They’d “touch” his wounds on their behalf (which in addition to proving he was their once-dead now-alive Savior, he’d also paid for all their sins).
And then he takes a deep breath, exhales on them (the literal Greek says that) and says, in effect, “My completely forgiven and holy brothers, Adam has been undone! You are holy now, since these wounds have covered all your sins, the ones you know about and even the ones you don’t know about. Be renewed! Let’s get back to breathing in the breath of life and live in “peace” and security and transparency of Garden-of-Eden” living. Whoever you tell about this forgiveness will know they’re forgiven. Whoever you don’t, they won’t. They’ll hold on to their sins. And you might be trapped holding on to theirs because you still don’t get it. These marks in my hands, feet and side paid for ALL yours and their sins. And all means all!”
So here’s the final message I see Jesus saying to me this go round in this treasure trove of resurrection appearances”
“Live forgiven! Live forgiving. My marks and nail holes prove that all sins have been paid for, yours and others. Receive your forgiveness. And forgive others. These marks both pay for the things you’ve done and they’ve done to you, and should set us all free from having to “hold onto” sin—ours, and others. So do what I do. Spread the joy. Even to doubting Thomas people, who I’ll eventually come to and meet at their level of experiential-proof need.
“Long story short—Peace be unto you all!”
Have a great rest of your week!
