A reflection by Fr.
Gene Tucker, provided for Trinity
Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, April 22, 2012.
“THE RESURRECTED PRESENCE OF CHRIST”
(Text: Luke 24: 36b – 48)
In our
Parish Hall sits a galvanized bucket, which bears a slogan: “Mysteries of God”. Surrounding the slogan on the bucket are
quite a large number of question marks.
By now you
know that this bucket came into being as a result of our Wednesday morning
discussions in the group which is formally known as the “Informal Discussion
Group”, but which is informally known as the “Happy Wanderers”. Many times during our considerations of the
various books of the New Testament (we are making our way through the entire
New Testament, one book at a time), we would wander off the subject at hand
into some related topic. Sometimes, we’d
come up against a question which we couldn’t find an answer to….so, we decided
that those questions ought to wind up in the “Mysteries of God” bucket, so that
we could present them to God at some appropriate point.
Of course,
the bucket’s very existence bears witness to the fact that there are some
aspects of our life of faith in God that we cannot know entirely this side of
heaven. Complete answers to some of
those mysteries will have to wait until we are in God’s very presence.
But, in the
meantime, in this life, we struggle to understand, don’t we? (The very fact that we struggle with the
mysteries of God is testament to the fact that we have a lively faith, and an
ongoing, intimate relationship with Him through Jesus Christ….this ought to
provide comfort to us and an assurance of God’s presence in our lives.)
Perhaps I am digressing just a little.
Let’s return
to this “Mystery of God” and pose the question “Just how is the resurrected
Jesus present with us?”
The
question itself comes from our gospel reading for today, from the very end of
Luke’s account, chapter 24. Here, we
read that Jesus came and stood among them (verse 36). Of course, the disciples are startled and
frightened. But Jesus invites them to
touch him, to see that He “has flesh and bones”, and is not a spirit. Then, He asks if they have anything to
eat. Receiving a piece of broiled fish, He
eats with them.
So, here we
have one answer: Jesus was with the
disciples after His resurrection, and in this state, He possessed all of His
physical reality (flesh and bones) that He had before His death. (We should remember that John’s gospel account
also takes care to tell us that Jesus invited Thomas to touch Him, to see that
He had a real, physical body….this was our gospel text for last week.)
Yet another
aspect to Jesus’ resurrected presence has to do with His ascension into
heaven. It is Luke who narrates this
event for us, telling us that the ascension took place 40 days after
Easter. Our reading from I John (verse
2b) this morning alludes to Jesus’ absence, as we hear that “when Jesus
appears, we shall be like him….” The
writer affirms that Jesus isn’t present now, but that He will be at some point
in the future.
Yet another understanding of Jesus’ continuing presence is offered to us in Matthew’s gospel account….
In Matthew
18: 20, we read this: “For where two or
three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” This understanding of Jesus’ continuing
presence is affirmed as Jesus says to the gathered disciples on the mountain
(Matthew 28:20) that He “is with them always, even to the close of the age.”
To summarize,
then, we have the following understandings of Jesus’ presence/absence among us
after His resurrection:
1. Jesus rises from the dead, possessing a
physical body which can be touched, and which can eat food.
2. Jesus’ resurrected state makes Him free of
the normal limitations of a physical existence, as He is able to suddenly
appear in one place, then disappear. He
can also pass through closed doors (see John 20: 26).
3. Jesus ascends into heaven 40 days after the
resurrection (see Acts 1: 1 – 11).
4. Jesus continues to be with His disciples,
wherever they are gathered (even in small groups of two or three – Matthew 18),
and until the close of the age (Matthew 28).
Now how can
all of these things be true?
Perhaps
it’s time to bring the “Mysteries of God” bucket and write our wonderings on a
slip of paper, so that we can present this question to the Father when we come
into His presence someday.
For now,
however, it seems appropriate to say that all of these things can be true, and all
can be true at the same time….The truth of all of these statements, none of
which cancel out any other understandings, can be affirmed this way: 1.
Yes, Jesus rose from the grave with all of His physical being
intact, 2. He was free of the normal limitations that
having an actual, physical body imposes, 3.
Jesus is gone from us into heaven, and 4. Jesus is present with us, now and until the
end of time.
So, what
can we understand about all this?
Perhaps
just this:
·
Jesus is
free of the limitations of time and space, having arisen from the grave.
·
Because He is free of the limitations of time
and space, He can be present in more than one place at one time.
·
This freedom allows Him to be present wherever
His disciples are gathered, even in small groups.
·
This freedom allows Him to be present in the
celebrations of the Last Supper (Communion), when He offered His body and blood
to us under the forms of bread and wine.
Welcome to
the wonderful and mysterious reality of Jesus’ resurrected presence with us,
and to a contemplation of the “Mysteries of God”!
