Third Sunday of Easter
[Br. Reginald SSF. St Peter’s, Canterbury, 22nd April 2012]
A NEW CREATION Br Reginald SSF
EASTER 3 [1 John 3.1-7; Luke 24.36b-48]
‘If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.’ (2 Cor. 5.17).
‘The disciples were startled and terrified, and thought they were seeing a ghost.’ I don’t know whether any of you believe in ghosts or would claim to have seen one. But there’s no doubt that in today’s gospel ‘seeing a ghost’ means ‘not for real’. When Jesus appeared to those bewildered and disillusioned disciples they could not believe their eyes. Why should they? One thing was clear beyond doubt. Jesus had been killed. His corpse had been buried. Whatever Jesus had said about being crucified and rising again was beyond their comprehension. The average Jew at that time had no clear expectation of life after death other than a shadowy and meaningless existence. Here and there in the OT, it’s true, there’s hope of something better, even hints that some people longed for a vision of God after death. But the general opinion was that when you’re dead you’re dead. So make the most of this life. And now - what did Jesus do to convince them that he was there? He showed them his hands and his feet. He invited them to touch his body and prove that he was no phantom but real flesh and bone. To remove all doubt, he said ‘What about something to eat?’ and he shared their meal.
What does this tell us about the resurrection of Jesus and about life after death? A commonly held view about life after death is that when this body dies the essential. invisible part of us – spirit or soul – continues in a sort of disembodied existence. That’s really a pagan view. Greek thinking encouraged it, but it’s not what we find in the Bible.
Today’s gospel shows us the risen Jesus as a real human being, not a disembodied spirit, He looked, spoke and ate as he’d always done, but there was a difference. He was not limited as we are, and was able to pass through bolted doors and appear wherever. It is the old body, but renewed, recreated. And that is what the gospel of Christ crucified and raised from the dead is about. Redemption means a new creation and the recreation of human nature. St Paul, writing about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, insists that in sharing the resurrection of Jesus we shall each be given a new, heavenly body. Human nature is remade in the image of Jesus, to be the vehicle of his love and goodness. And he says in his other letter to the Corinthians: ‘If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation….Everything has become new.’
St Francis reminds us that we should have a deep respect and reverence for everything that God has made. We don’t grow spiritually by despising the body and material things. A lot may be spoilt and imperfect here, but all that is of value will be renewed and brought to perfection. Beethoven was stone deaf for the last few years of his life. He heard wonderful music in his head and he wrote it down for others to read and play. But with his ears he heard not a sound. Beethoven’s dying words were: ‘In heaven I shall hear.’
Because we live in a world of time, where one event takes place after another, we tend to think of the cross and resurrection of Jesus as two separate events, as though the crucifixion was a tragic mistake and the resurrection somehow put it right. But the death of Jesus – sharing to the limit the world’s pain and the consequences of evil – that was his victory. It was on the cross that he cried ‘It is finished’ – the world’s redemption is accomplished. It was on the cross that Jesus untwisted the deformity of sin and remade our human nature. The resurrection is the proclamation of victory won and of the new creation begun. And for us the new creation has begun. We don’t have to wait for it until we’re dead..
When the Pharisee, Nicodemus, came secretly by night to talk to Jesus he was surprised to be told ‘Unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Then Jesus said that one must be born of water and spirit. ‘Born again’ can be translated ‘born anew’ or ‘born from above.’ Jesus is speaking of the new creation that has to happen. This new life begins at baptism and when anyone says ‘yes’ to Christ. So with each of us. It has begun, and day by day we can help or hinder it. ‘Born again’ Christians are not special people who have had a dramatic conversion experience but any disciples - people who have turned to Christ in faith and who, in spite of all the odds and failures, want to be changed and become more Christlike. To be a Christian is to be somebody in whom the Holy Spirit has begun the new creation.
Some years ago our Franciscan sisters produced an Easter card. It was a picture of a group of happy people holding lighted candles. Underneath was a quotation from1 John – from the second reading we have heard today. ‘Now we are children of God.’ Let’s think back and finish John’s sentence: ‘ Now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known But we know that when he appears we shall be like him.’ Already the new creation has begun and we’re part of it.
St Peter’s, Canterbury. 22 April 2012