Evidences Of The Resurrection

by

Donald G. Hayter

THERE IS IN the four accounts a nine-fold affirmation attesting to the irrefutable fact that the One Who was crucified rose from among the dead in the same body (though differing in one vital detail) that lay inert in the tomb for three days. Nine times He appeared to individuals and groups, both many and few. The Lord had said that "at the mouth of two witnesses, or of three, every declaration may be made to stand." The evidence for the resurrection is multiplied three times three, setting it apart as an undoubted, certified fact. Paul, in the great argument in his Corinthian epistle as to the resurrection mentions six appearances of the Lord after His death, including the manifestation to himself on the Damascus road in His body of glory. Not that it was a different body to that which Thomas handled, and the feet of which Mary held, but the Lord suited the glory of its appearance to the occasion.

But let us consider one of the nine occasions that the Lord presented Himself alive on earth after His death, that in Luke 24:36. The two disciples, who had had the rare and precious privilege of hearing the Lord expounding the Scriptures concerning Himself on the Emmaus road, and to whom He had revealed Himself as they reclined at table, had hastened back to Jerusalem to the rest of the disciples to report the amazing event. They found the eleven assembled there with others. (This may well have been the occasion of the 500 brethren seeing the Lord, mentioned by Paul.) The meeting had been convened by the apostles, and they had heard from Peter that he had seen the Lord and that He was really roused. The two added their testimony to this fact. Up to then the disciples had treated the reports of the Lord's resurrection with disbelief and even as nonsense Luke 24:11). But now, at last, it seemed as if they really believed that He had risen.

Yet as they were expressing themselves thus, Jesus Himself stood in their midst. How very different was their reaction to His presence from that of Mary, when she heard the tender tones of the Lord's voice uttering her name, "Miriam." She had responded at once with affection and faith, "Rabboni!" But the disciples' reaction to the Lord's conciliatory greeting, "Peace to you!" was one of dismay and fright. Their hearts failed them, and they were fearful for themselves in their unbelief. Instead of recognizing that the Lord Himself stood before them they thought they were seeing a spirit. It may have been their past conduct that put fear in their hearts, for they had deserted Him in the hour of His trial and had treated with disdain the reports of others as to His resurrection. Now dismayed they were and affrighted. "Why are you disturbed?" the Lord asked, "And wherefore are reasonings coming up in your hearts?" He had greeted them with "Peace," the word of conciliation, yet they had not the faith to believe His loving greeting. They reasoned that this could not be the Lord, but a spirit impersonating Him, and their reasoning destroyed their faith.

Then the Lord gave them indisputable evidence that He was indeed no spirit, but the same One Whom they had followed and observed over several years, and Who had been crucified before their eyes and laid in a tomb by some from among them. "Perceive My hands and My feet that it is I Myself," He said. Then He invited them to handle Him, to touch His hands and His feet, and assure themselves that He was indeed no spirit, but the same Lord they had known. "For," He said "a spirit has not flesh and bones according as you behold Me having."

These are remarkable words, for they assure us that the Lord in resurrection has the same body of flesh and bones such as He had before His death. He did not use the usual phrase for a human, "flesh and blood," for He had shed His blood on the cross, but otherwise His body was as it was before. The vast difference lay in the superabundance of spirit that now suffused His frame instead of blood. And thus He ascended later into heaven. He had already ascended once into His Father's presence and had returned to spend these forty days with His disciples.

The marvel of the Lord's body was the vast range of glory within which He could visualize Himself to others. To Mary He appeared as if He were a gardener, yet to Paul His presence was more resplendent than the noonday sun at its most brilliant. Thomas could touch Him and look upon His face unharmed, yet Paul at a distance from the Lord was blinded by the brightness of His glory. Yet it was the same Jesus Who appeared to both.

After the Lord had exhibited to the disciples His hands and His feet, they still could not believe it was the Lord, so marvelous and joyous was the sight. Hence the Lord gave them one more demonstration that He was indeed Jesus the Crucified. He asked for food, and on being handed a part of a broiled fish He ate before them. No spirit was He, but a tangible, visible Man of flesh and bones able to take and assimilate food.

We need to remind ourselves that the One Who now lives for us in the highest heights of heaven, dwelling in a glory altogether too brilliant for human eyes, is the same One Who walked and talked and appeared to the disciples, eating before them, and Whose flesh and bones are as substantial as our own. The great difference in His body before and after resurrection lay in His blood. In resurrection, instead of blood He had a superabundance of spirit, enabling Him to adapt Himself to every environment and circumstance He might meet throughout the vast and varied universe. He can assume whatever condition of glory the occasion demands. When He comes to Olive's mount to inaugurate the kingdom of the heavens His glory will be appropriate to earth's dwellers. Should He appear then as He did to Paul the brightness of His presence would blind all who gazed upon Him. When He comes for us in the air we shall be like Him, having a body of glory like His, so that He may not need to moderate His glory. He is glorious at all times, but He is able to suit its manifestation to suit His environment.

And thus shall we be also in His presence. We shall be changed when He comes, and transfigured from mortals of the soil to celestials of glory and power. All this will be brought about, not by this present body being cast aside as a useless husk, but by a change in its constitution. Instead of blood our frames will be suffused, like His, with a superabundance of spirit. Thus shall we be changed from weaklings chained to the soil to monarchs of space capable of rising upwards to meet the Lord in the air, and thence to traverse the vast areas of the heavens, passing upwards into the very presence of the God of glory. We shall be changed, but within each of us will remain the man that is now. Just as the Lord could exhibit His wounded hands, feet and side to Thomas, so shall we in our celestial bodies be able to display what we were, as well as manifest the glory of God in its most transcendent form. Wherever our task might take us in the vast celestial kingdom of Christ we shall be able to suit the brilliance of our presence to the differing glories of the innumerable stellar worlds scattered throughout the realms of space. We shall be like our glorious Lord possessing bodies of glory, no longer shackled to the ground but free to perform our particular function as members of the administrative body of Christ among the celestials.

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