Easter Sunday April 20^th 2025

A blessed Easter hug to you!

Jesus is risen is neither a matter of faith or of belief. It is an offer of experience that you can chose to accept. The preaching and teaching of the gospel has been so outdated and so irrelevant for so long! Just look to Jesus!

We begin this one by looking at the post Easter appearances of Jesus and then a little on what he said about the life beyond ; please read, as an adventure, the sections in Luke 24:13ff; 36ff and John 20:19ff; 26ff and 21:1ff; and k 23:43 and finally John 14:2ff.

These are very different from traditional talking and thinking about what they were and are; hence the continued use of heaven as up and hell as down and RIP whenever someone leaves. Perhaps the biggest clue, though, is in the fear that most of us have when it comes to death and dying.

And what happens in the Luke and John stories about Jesus? They pose challenging questions that are not really taken up, since they delve into what seems to be science fiction! The categories are

1.Jesus appears suddenly and without warning, to the disciples; one time, even behind closed doors in a walled building.

2.Jesus disappears just as suddenly, except for the final mention in John where, outside of Jerusalem, he blesses the disciples and seems to move away, recede, and then disappear; this being seen a in an upward direction as recorded, it would appear that he moved upwards and was soon gone out of sight.

3.he eats broiled fish with them.

4. He is a physical being; Thomas, who doubted his appearance, reaches out and touches and feels the scars on him.

5. Lastly, when he appears, recognition is not a given; on 2 occasions, he walks and talks and is not recognized until he sits to eat with them and breaks bread with them – and then vanishes from their sight as in the road to Emmaus; and at the Sea of Tiberius where he bids them cast down and they draw up a huge amount of fish and then suddenly realize it is Jesus.

What conclusions can we draw about what has happened to the Jesus they knew? They have seen that he forgives and heals; now he appears and disappears, moves through thin air, passes through solid walls, and is neither ghost nor spirit.

There is no precedent in the Bible for this. The Old Testament speaks of Hell as Sheol, as in the underworld; so the Psalmist even says ‘in Sheol who can praise thee?’ That is a little reminiscent of the Greek notion of Hades as the underworld, where one has to cross the river Styx to get into the underworld.

In 1 Samuel Ch 28:3ff  there is this neat story about Saul and the medium of Endor; wanting to know the outcome of impending battle, Saul finds a medium, though by law their existence and practice is forbidden; he asks to speak to Samuel and so the medium brings up Samuel, who does not give him any good news. But Samuel does not speak through the Medium. Samuel appears, and the Hebrew word here for Samuel is used only this once in the Bible; It means ‘ghost.’

Next, the notion of death is that the body is made from dust and at death returns to the dust it was made from; but the soul, the spirit life that God has breathed into the clay, returns to God; read the Genesis creation account; read Ecclesiastes 12.

But in the tradition, there is a one stop option re heaven i.e. you go to heaven. Wherever it is, whatever it is. Next to nothing is known. You hope. Or you’re going to hell. That was pretty much how the gospel was traditionally preached and still is. Be saved, or risk going to hell. Not much of an invitation. The other side of it was the ‘Be saved, and your sins are forgiven’ so you get to go to heaven. I am not sure whether that escapes coercion at all. Kind of a weird self-serving invite. Does not mesh with the ‘ he who loses his life will find it….

Clues? Jesus says to the one on his right, since he has been asked to remember him in the kingdom, in Luke 23:43 -  and this day you will be with me in paradise. Sounds a little like the garden of Eden. Could be. We don’t know.

Again in John 14:2ff, Jesus tells us that in my Father’s house there are many rooms, and I go to prepare a place for you….read the section, it is very thought provoking; he also says I will come and take you there…what does that mean? Ask the Spirit!

Useful also to read Ecclesiastes 12:6ff and ask what is the silver cord, the golden bowl, the pitcher broken at the fountain, the wheel broken at the cistern; and then the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

If you get the Kingdom right, you will not fear death, as I do not. Both your own intuition and the Holy Spirit will tell you what you need to know. Read Sherwin Nuland’s ‘How We Die’ to get a sense of what physical death means. It may help.  Let it come when it will. I have made a weird discovery for myself as I have grown old. The Lord allows us to die when we will, and even how we will, not counting the accidental causality of life.  The how has a lot to do with taking good care of your body health. If you do that well, then you get to decide the when of it. You will know for yourself. The body is a limited time frame, and it will tire. It will be time to leave.  We leave for a better place, only because on this one we have done such a bad job of stewardship on all the Lord has given. So we must traverse inter-dimensionality at death.

Remember, for all of our philosophy, technology, and so-called wealth achievements – we have no idea what the soul really is and where the soul resides in our being; and the same applies to that which we call our ‘consciousness’. Both psychology and psychiatry like to think of this as relating to the human brain, but the limits are obvious and the Qs have not been answered.

Jesus post Resurrection appearances, like so much in the Bible, start with the invitation to have faith and believe; or believe and have faith. But beyond that they invite you into experience, here and now. No teachers, no miracle workers, no faith healers, none of the usual mumbo jumbo. Find out for yourself. The how of it is simple. Do good and grow. Each good action = one step forward into the being and power of the Kingdom. And the hidden + factor is the ability to control a thing, to make a thing change as you will (remember Jesus on moving the mountain to the sea? ) Grow in Christ, the Risen Savior. That option is open to all of us. Don’t follow me. I seek no followers. Follow Jesus. Move mountains. Every blessing in his name, dearly beloved! G.