What really happened at the tomb? The four gospels offer nuanced reports. Mark alone has three different endings. Who was there? While there’s general agreement about this (women), St. Paul is either way off or the most accurate (he says it was Peter). Did the risen Christ meet them in an upper room or on the shore?
To engage in debate about the historical accuracy of the who, what and when of Jesus’ being raised from the dead is, frankly, a dead end. Literalists will proof text ’til the Second Coming while others aren’t really quite sure what to think or believe about this, the most central yet mysterious event in Christianity.
For me, the proof of the resurrection of Christ is right in front of us. Actually, it is us because the continuing existence of the church demonstrates that Christ was risen and is alive. When addressing the church at Corinth St. Paul said, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”
I base my belief on biblical writings but also on personal experience. My 20 years in ordained ministry have borne witness to the truth of the claim that the church is the body of Christ, which has been both a comfort and a challenge.
This conviction has been comforting as I’ve seen so many people encouraged by the church in times of crisis, consoled by the church in times of sorrow, and buoyed by the church in times of joy. Christ has been wondrously incarnated, embodied in acts of compassion by the United States … the church.
But this article of faith has been severely challenged by that same church who has embraced right-wing demagogues, encouraged violence against blacks, gays and lesbians, and blessed nationalistic horrors like the Inquisition, the Holocaust, capital punishment, and war. Is THIS the same church?
“Now you are the body of Christ…”
With all due respect to my Wesleyan cousins, we are not perfect ó therefore the church is not and cannot be perfect. While the proof of the Resurrection may be the church, the church is not proof of perfection. It is what it is, a community of the faithful but a community of people.
Mister Rogers was a member of my home church in Pittsburgh. After I’d been ordained and served a year or so in parish ministry, I visited my home church one Sunday and spoke to Fred. He asked how things were going, and I sighed and asked, “Why do church people fight so much?” In that unmistakable Mister Rogers voice that nurtured me in my youth, he asked back, “Doug, have you read the Apostle Paul lately?”
We, the body of Christ, have received his risen body but we have not incarnated his perfection. That day is apparently in some dim future unknown to us. But we have been invited to embody Christ’s life, his compassion, his justice, his peace.
Maybe if we resurrected these divine attributes, there’d be fewer debates and controversies in this holy body we call the church. Who would have the time to be angry or riled when one was caring for the widows and orphans, looking out for the least, and laying down our lives for the oppressed?
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The Rev. Doug Gebhard is interim pastor at John Calvin Presbyterian Church.