Resurrection eyes.
I meet each week with an ecumenical group for an hour of lectionary study. The group began fifty years ago led byThe Rev. Ernie Campbell, rector of St. Paul’s in Walla Walla, WA. Now led by The Rev. Martha Hurlburt, it meets via Zoom to include those who live far away. Who knows how long it will continue, but I digress. Not long ago we were talking about Resurrection eyes. No one remembered where the phrase came from, but it was familiar. Resurrection eyes are needed to recognize the risen Christ. Without them his full identity remains veiled, an improbable delusion.
None who first met him on Easter Sunday had Resurrection eyes nor could they recognize him. Even Mary Magdalen recognized him in disbelieving belief only after he called her by name. Her testimony to the others was received with suspicious doubt. And why not? The only Jesus they knew was an itinerant teacher and miraculous healer they had followed for three years. True he had an unusually close connection with God, called God his father, and said cryptic things about how his death would be the messianic moment for which they had been waiting. There was something about rising again, but who could understand it? The Jesus they knew got hot, tired, hungry, thirsty, dirty, and needed to relieve himself in the usual way. No signs of divinity in that. Son of God? Perhaps, but who could understand what that meant?
The risen Christ, revealed in the fullness of who he was, the very personification of God, had to be too much to comprehend. But once realized, it changed the meaning of everything they had ever heard him say and do. It also changed them. One cannot go on as before once one has been called and transformed by the living God.
It isn’t easy for us to grasp the enormity of what was happening to his followers, so let’s try a thought experiment. Imagine someone you loved returned to you from the grave, not as a vision, ghost, or warm memory, but as a an embodied person – not young or old, but definitely your loved one. How would you react? How would it affect your understanding of death and life? What we can only imagine is close to what the disciples experienced in reality.
Two thousand years later we are still trying to make sense out of the improbable Easter story. It is only with Resurrection eyes that one is able to recognize the risen Christ as Jesus. Once recognized, how can he not change one’s life in the most fundamental of ways? Well, as it turns out we are a stubborn people and quite able to resist the life changing powers of the Resurrection. It’s hard for us to recognize anything that is beyond boundaries of three dimensions and linear time. Well, that’s not quite true either. We are gullible and easily bamboozled by stories of two headed aliens, secret cabals that rule the world, various oddball conspiracies, and most anything a two-bit huckster wants to sell. At the same time, we are stiff necked about believing what God had done and physically manifested through the birth, life, teaching, death and Resurrection of Jesus, the Word of God made flesh. Why? Maybe it’s because to follow Jesus demands a new way of life, but to believe in spiritual snake oil demands no change of life, can be entertaining, and even reinforce our worst prejudices. Resurrection eyes are eyes open to a more complete, truthful, and eternal reality. They are less susceptible to pitfalls of gullibility, not immune, but less susceptible.
Resurrection eyes recognize Christ Jesus, but understanding comes slowly. For the first apostles, it took the rest of their lives. As Paul wrote even then it was understanding only seen dimly. We struggle still. God is unlimited by any dimension of time and space. The past, present and future of creating hinges on the Christ event and is still unfolding. Thankfully there is no final exam that measures how much we understand. It isn’t how much we understand, but how much we try to understand, how much we allow the Resurrection to change our lives. It isn’t pass-fail, nor is it dedication to a particular creed or confession. It is dependent on the faith that is known to God alone.
I am an Episcopalian, and confident that the church and its liturgy, following in the catholic tradition of classical Christianity, truly represents who God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are. Init I have discovered whatever Resurrection eyes I am capable of having, and have been drawn ever lose to becoming a tru disciple. That does not make it the one true church. It’s simply the place where I am able to be as true a Christian as I am currently able. Through it I have come to understand the Christ even is not something that happened once a long time ago. It is happening still,
Thank you. it is very helpful to read this today and thank you for the shout to Ernie. As his backyard neighbors of 40 plus years, it is comforting to know that many of the good works he did live on.
Thank you. We get to spend our lives in that search, and the search never ends.