The following piece began life as an article written by Melissa and myself for a newsletter for an aged care facility. The occasion was Easter 2021.
Lockdown, masks, sanitiser and nasal swabs. This last year has reminded us how inescapably physical we are. That patch of dry skin, cracked from the constant hand washing. Masks that fog up your glasses. The hugs we want but can’t have.
We're powerless to escape our physical bodies and their limitations. And so the protocols rule our lives.
I wonder how the first Easter would have played out had it happened in 2021. Not long having walked out of Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb, Jesus appears to his followers and says to them, “Touch me!”.
I hope he’s sanitised.
“Touch me and see,” Jesus insists. “A ghost does not have flesh and bones like you see I have.” There’s something about his resurrection that Jesus wants to make sure his followers understand. It’s not just his spirit that they see. It’s his body. The same one that they saw killed days earlier.
“Look at my hands and my feet. It’s me!” (Luke 24:39)
Jesus was not only recognisably himself, but his body was the same one he had before. It was him. Thomas had only to reach out and put his fingers in the holes in Jesus’ hands to confirm it. Not just a spirit, a body. And not just any body, his body.
This isn’t just a curiosity, however. This is the pattern of Spirit-enabled resurrection.
Jesus’ resurrection life wasn’t an escape from physical existence. Resurrection by the Holy Spirit is the fulfilment of physical existence. You will not leave your body behind, escaping the trappings of everyday life. The resurrected in Christ will pass him the fish and ask him for the salt.
What then for those who can no longer taste? Whose legs no longer work? Whose eyes do not recognise their own children?
They are not looking forward to the simple easing of their pain. Passing from the body and its limitations. Escaping to a world without these things. This is not how it will be for those in Christ. They will glory in the balance of the spices. They will run. And they will recognise their loved ones when they see them.
This is what Easter means.
Happy Easter.