All right, last to do as usual for this one hour together. What I'd like to do for this resurrection lecture is to kind of divide it into two halves. The first half I want to look at introduction to introductory points, define something with resurrection is what it is not, why should we believe in it? A little bit of apologetics.
For our own sakes, as well as for anyone who might ask us, why do we believe in the resurrection? Why is it so important? Isn't it enough that we just have Jesus alive and well in our hearts? Whatever it might be, we need to spend a little bit of time on that, this introductory fashion.
Whole series could be done on just the apologetics alone for our Lord's Divinity, the resurrection, all this stuff, right? So the first half is just this point. Introduction definitions, what's the resurrection? Why should we believe?
In the second half, we will look at some selected resurrection appearances and draw some key themes, a golden thread throughout all of that. All right, so that being said, let's dive in and understand what is the resurrection. First, let's look at what the resurrection is not. And there's a number of things that it is not and you may or may not be surprised to hear.
There's some really strange far-fetched explanations out there as to what the resurrection is and many of these beliefs about the resurrection are just false or incorrect. And usually they're born out of the inability to simply believe, that the apostles are telling the truth, they are eyewitnesses, and they are proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, the God-made man who suffered for us, died for us, and rose from the dead. And that's really difficult for some people to believe, typically because of bondage to sin and different types of sin. But in an effort to try to make it halfway, people can cock these other different theories to explain away the resurrection, if I'm making any sense.
So let's look at some of these. Number one, the resurrection is not Jesus returning to his ordinary natural life. That is what's known technically as resuscitation. So resuscitation means you're brought back from life, sorry, you're brought back from death to life, and then you're going to die again, which is kind of bad news to have to go through death all over again.
And there are different stories in the Old Testament and in the New Testament where this happened. In the Old Testament, I have some of these passages here in reference for you in the notes. First Kings, Second Kings, these are different instances where Elijah or Alicia would bring people back from the dead, but these people would ultimately die once more. Even in Jesus' own ministry of Jairus' daughter, Lazarus is the most famous classic example where he's dead and buried for four days and he comes and he's weeping because he loves his friend and sisters and he yells, Lazarus come forth, right?
Come out and he does. Everyone knows the story. The poor Lazarus needs to die again. He will die again eventually.
He just simply resuscitated. There's the widow's son as well. And then even Peter and Paul bring people back from the dead and acts. These are all accounts of resuscitation.
These people return to ordinary natural life. That's not the case with Jesus. His body is transformed as I'll explain to you just a little bit when we talk about what the resurrection is. So first, it's not returning to ordinary natural life where he will then die again at some point in the future.
Okay. Second, the resurrection is not Jesus' soul or his spirit being sort of exalted and alive and well with God, right? He's exalted to the right hand of the Father in this position of authority, has nothing to do with his body. It's just his soul and his spirit kind of being alive, so to speak, in his vague form, vague definition of him being alive after death.
That's very vague. It's very imprecise. And that's not what we're talking about because the resurrection revolves around what happens to Jesus' corpse. Okay.
That's the second one that the resurrection is not. Also, three, it is not the figure or the character of Jesus being alive and well in our hearts as a warm, fuzzy idea or feeling or memory. You know, like this is just around out there. And unfortunately, this is what a lot of people say the resurrection is come Easter time, right?
Where they don't believe in the actual resurrection. It's like, yeah, Jesus was a great moral teacher. He really taught us the golden, the golden rule and to be nice and to love one another. And so the figure of Jesus, his character, his mission is alive and well in our hearts.
And that's keeping his memory alive and that's the resurrection and that's false. That's not what we're talking about. Okay. And then number four, the resurrection is not the apostles seeing some sort of ghost or vision or apparition of Jesus in their morning or in their grief, which is kind of strange because how could you have like this collective mission where you share?
It's just weird. It's like they're all like we're on this acid trip together and then they see Jesus appear to them. No, that's not what we're talking about. Okay.
Now, there's interesting, of course, like I said, in the beginning of this lecture, we could spend a lot of time looking at all the various different attempts at explaining away what the resurrection is. I do recommend here in the bottom of your notes here in this footnote. There's a few books you could consult. Two of them I've already mentioned multiple times in this introductory series for you.
You've got Peter Creve, then Tichelli, they got the great handbook of Catholic apologetics or the general really Christian apologetics. This is a book that even non-Catholics would really appreciate. They got a great chapter in here on the resurrection. Grant Petrie in his case for Jesus is a great chapter on the resurrection as well.
But I really recommend to folks Carl Olson, he has a book, the Jesus rise from the dead. Now, there are many, many great books. I mean, if you have another book out there, there are plenty of them out there where you can look at all these different theories. For example, let's give you one quick example, hopefully without burning too much time.
And that's the swoon theory. It's one of my favorites. The swoon theory is that Jesus was up on the cross. Sure, he was beaten up terribly, discouraging, the crucifixion.
That's going to really wipe him out. And he fainted. He sure enough fainted. And everyone thought he was dead.
He was just lifeless. And so they thought, yep, the crucifixion killed him. And then they buried him in the tomb. And then three days later, Jesus wakes up undoubtedly with a headache.
He's not feeling too well. Certainly. But he wakes up wearing him. Wow, that was a really rough time.
And he walks out of the tomb and he kind of appears to people. But they think he is resurrected because he apparently, by all appearances, he was dead from crucifixion. This is such a pathetic attempt to explain away what actually happened. There's so many problems with this.
I don't have time to get into it. I just wanted to mention that there are other silly theories. The one thing that I'll say right now is, trust me, the Romans knew how to kill a man. The Romans knew what they were doing from beginning to end during this execution process.
So Jesus was certainly dead. He just didn't swoon or faint on the cross. All right, well, with that, let's just move on and look at what the resurrection is. If it's not him returning to ordinary natural life, it's not his soul or spirit being alive with God in heaven.
Or the figure of Jesus, alive in well in our hearts, or the apostle seeing a ghost or whatever it might be. Which is interesting because I'm going to share with you a passage from Luke where they actually think he's a ghost. So what is it, therefore? It is Jesus returning to bodily life after death.
Has nothing to do with just his soul or his spirit being in heaven or in our hearts. It has to do with what happened to his corpse. He returned to bodily life after death. And his body is not just ordinary natural life.
His body, his physical body is resurrected from the dead in a transformed, glorified state. I like to always joke with students like this is Jesus 2.0. His body has been upgraded now. It's not his usual, Jesus 1.0 body, his human body, Jesus 2.0.
Okay, it's transformed and glorified and he will never die again. Completely transformed and glorified. Okay, so this is what we're talking about. Old courts, dead, resurrected to new life.
And this is going to be what it's like for all eternity. And we know that this is what it's like because you start reading some of the passages in the Gospels. And again, the work that we did a few lectures back, looking at the Gospels, it's historical biographies. It's not folk lore, it's not fairy tales.
It is an actual historical biography that is written along the same with the same characteristics and rules as other ancient biographies in the Greco-Roman world. So we can take this as history from eyewitnesses and what they saw. That's so important. The work that we did before is crucial in a conversation like the Resurrection now.
And it's been crucial in conversations of his miracles as well, right? Eyewitnesses saw this. When Jesus multiplies bread, by the way, I wouldn't talk about this, but I'll say it really quickly. When Jesus multiplies bread for the 5,000 men not counting women and children, it is not Jesus teaching people how to share.
That's not what we're talking about. Although it is a miracle to teach some people how to share. I'm not going to deny that fact, but Jesus truly takes a few loaves and multiplies it. Why?
Because the people react in such a way where they want to make him king, go back and read John 6. They want to make him king and then throne him. This is the prophet who is to come. This is the new Moses.
So bringing this back to the Resurrection now, you have these eyewitness accounts of what's going on here. Well, Jesus, what are some of the ways in which we can understand that this is Jesus brought back to bodily life in a transfigured state, a transformed state? Well, I just want to read one passage. I've got other passage in your notes.
We can't read them all, unfortunately. But I want to take you to Luke 24, verse 36. Jesus himself stood among them and he said to them, Peace be with you, Shalom. And they were startled and frightened and supposed that they saw a spirit.
And he said to them, Why are you troubled and why do you question his rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet that it is I myself? Handle me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
And while they still disbelieved for joy and wondered, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat? And gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it before them. This passage is great because there's a lot of things going on and how Jesus proves it's him. He's not an apparition.
He's not a ghost. He asks for food to eat. Ghosts do not eat food. If you're ever in a haunted house and you see a ghost, ask, Hey, would you like a little bit of something to eat?
And I want to talk with you about the afterlife. Nothing's going to happen. Nothing's going to happen. He will not eat ghosts do not eat anything because they're disembodied.
Of course. And then also they touch him. The apostles touch him. He says, Look, see that it is me.
Handle me. Touch me. A spirit has not flesh and bones as I have. So the apostles touch him.
Also, the famous example is St. Thomas, the doubtful right? Douting Thomas. He says, I won't believe unless I put my hand in his side and my fingers in his wrists.
He is persisting in his incredulity. He is sin against the virtue of faith. And ultimately, of course, our Lord capitulates. He sees him.
They touch him. He eats before them. Some other cool things, which is 2.0. He walks through walls.
He just appears miraculously. They're all locked up in the upper room here for fear of the Jews. And Jesus just appears before them. And he vanishes equally as quick.
There's a great story we'll talk about a little bit later. Really briefly, the story of the road to Emmaus. I like to call him Star Trek Jesus. He just vanishes in and vanishes out.
He's just an ordinary person can do this. So it is his body, but clearly his body has been upgraded in some spiritual fashion. Alright. So that's what we're talking about when we say the resurrection, the belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
And the second thing I want to make sure we point out that Jesus rose from the realm of the dead. We didn't have time to get into Holy Saturday and what happened. That's another thing. Another time, another place, another lecture for that whole minute mission that he performs to the souls who are in Abraham's bosom on Holy Friday.
Sorry, Holy Saturday. But in any case, he does go to the realm of the dead when he dies. The second person of the Trinity in his human soul goes down to the realm of the dead. And then he rises.
He comes back up out of the realm of the dead. And that's also kind of what we're talking about. His soul is not down there still. No, no, no.
He is resurrected in his body.